From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
An International Non Governmental Organization, (NGO), Search for Common Ground, (SFCG) has organized a four-day training for police actors on Conflict Sensitivity and awareness in Benue State.
The training, according to the Project Manager, Chorbe Joshua, is to equip the officers with fundamental human rights principles for practical application in daily engagements in order to increase understanding of human
rights principles amongst police actors in the state.
Our correspondent reports that SFCG, a peace building and conflict transformative organization that promotes peaceful resolution of conflict , is currently, implementing a 24-month project titled “United in Security; A collaborative approach to civilian protection in Nigeria” in three Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Benue State including Otukpo, Makurdi, and Guma and in three LGAs of Adamawa State; Yola North, Girei, and Fufore.
The project aims to strengthen the capacity of target civil society organizations (CSOs), the media, and community stakeholders to advance evidenced based human rights monitoring, reporting and constructive advocacy, while also fostering collaboration around increased accountability between target security forces, government authorities, civil society actors and local communities.
Speaking to our correspondent during the training in Makurdi, on Thursday, the resources person, AIG Austin Iwar (rtd), commended the organization for training the police saying “the police act 2020 clearly gives them the mandates of human rights and the laws specifically says that police officers should protect human rights of every person in this country.
“That in itself makes police a human rights promoter and a human rights agency. When you say the police is to protect lives and property, that is a human rights responsibility. So for police officers to be able to carry out that responsibility effectively, they need continuous training in different aspects and on issues that has to do with human rights.”
Iwar, who took the officers on “Community Policing in Nigeria: Background, Implementation and Practice,” said the police is central to problem solving and as such, should be imparted with not just knowledge, skills, competency, but also an understanding of their responsibilities with regards to human rights.
“Most importantly for me is that they should have attitudinal and behaviour change towards handling cases of human rights.”
He further recommended training and retraining for operational officers saying they are the ones dealing with members of the community on daily basis.
“Everyday when you open the pages of papers, there are news of human rights abuses and the police is at the center of it because they have more presence and dealings with the public than other security agencies. They need to be trained every time.
“The issues and challenges the police face everyday is changing. We need to continuously develop their skills to face these changes.
“Operation Zenda is an specialized unit in Benue state and they are dealing with specialized issues. if I am to advised the government, I will say that once you recruit people to work in such special units especially in units that deals with cases of human right, you give them special training,” he advised.
The participants for the training were selected from the police Complaint Response Unit, (CRU), Gender unit as well as Special Weapons And Tactics), (SWAT), units.
Chorbe also expressed the confidence that the training will engender positive engagements that will aid in the realization of a collaborative engagement between the
Police personnel and the civilians for sustainable peace in the state.
