Christopher Oji
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State command, Zubairu Muazu has admonished Police Officers that they should stop issuing detention orders in cases.
CP Muazu said the police should give their job a human face in dealing rightly with citizens whom they are meant to protect.
CP Zubairu gave the warning at the graduation of Course ’35’ Police Human Rights Officer’s Training held at the Area F Command , Ikeja , said that the officers should apply the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to solve some matters instead of issuing detention order and allowing some cases to get to the court.
The CP who was represented bt Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Akinbayo Olasoji, noted that it was becoming too embarrassing that some officers would not try to resolve some minor cases as they would be bothering the Court with such trivial matters that would have been resolved amicably.
According to Olasoji, “It is now a new dawn in the Nigerian Police Force and we now have an Inspector- General of Police with a listening ear and we all should be emulating the good things he is doing”.
Olasoji also noted that the training was to imbibe the culture of respecting human rights into police officers so that they would not tamper with their rights, thinking they are superior because they are in uniform.
“We need to be civil and make the job attractive to those who wish to join us and not to be seen as enemies of the country. He urged them to be as civil as possible because if you are not nice to citizens, no community will partner with you or sponsor your events. The fact that one of the graduating officers who happens to be among the best students is an operative of Federal SARS shows that there is an improvement in SARS and because the IG has been emphasising on the fact that you don’t take people rights for granted has really helped. We have different mechanisms in dealing with erring officers. We have the public complain bureau in all our public relations offices where complaints can be made and we also have the provost section where punishments are awarded to whoever that is found wanting.
” I have also noticed that most of you are not planning for your retirement. My advice is that officers should plan their retirement based on their basic income because, at the end, you will be getting 50% of your basic salary”, Olasoji said.
In her speech, Mrs. Gloria Egbuji, the Executive Director Of Crime Victims Foundation said the training was to further equip police officers with human rights knowledge as well as imbibing the tenets of human rights in the discharge of their duties so that they can professionally serve the public.
Egbuji also said that the human rights officers have trained about 18,000 officers in the Command since June 2006 and the training cuts across departments from regular police, Mobil Police Force (MOPOL) Traffic Section , SCID , Monitoring, Anti Cultism, Anti-kidnapping, State Anti Robbery Squad ( SARS) and Public Complain Bureau (PCB )and they have been selected from all the 120 divisions of Lagos staye Police Command.
“The 198 officers graduating today were trained on Basic International human rights standards for law enforcement ; dealing with victims, suspects and witnesses of human rights abuses as well as permissible circumstances in the use of force and firearms among other courses”, he said.
She, therefore, encouraged the NPF to nurture and sustain this culture as it is one of the world’s acclaimed benefits of democratic rule.
On his own, Mr. Ligali Frank Olakunle, who represented the Director for Public Prosecution (DPP) urged the officers to put what they have learnt into practice and also to remember that issues of fundamental human rights are not transferable but deals with individual and personal liberty.
While citing section 34-39 of the constitution, Ligali asked the officers to allow it form the bedrock of their investigations as any violation of this is against fundamental human rights of an individual.
“The rule of law is made for the advancement of the society,” he said.
A representative of the Director, Citizen Mediation Center, Mrs. Folashade Ajiboye said the center has settled 14,000 matters this year and that the center settles an average of 26,000 matters yearly.
Ajiboye said: ” Matters involving landlords /tenants matters as well as debt recovery, family matters are not meant supposed to be taken to the Police instead they should be referred to CMC for settlement.
The Class Governor of the Course ’35’ in his speech urged the officers who were trained to put the impacted knowledge into practice whenever or wherever they are discharging their duties.
He said “The Course participants have been tutored in many topics which includes Fundamental Human Rights, Child Rights Act, Domestic Violence among other courses and I thank my colleagues for their level of maturity, discipline, and corporations exhibited during the period of this knowledge-giving course.