The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria has urged the Inspector General of Police, Baba Usman, to clamp down on police operatives that engage in extortion, racketeering, and armed robbery.
In a statement released on Friday, the group warned that if left unattended, it will lead to bigger nationwide protests by citizens.
According to HURIWA, the nation might face a repeat of the #ENDSARS Protest if the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), fails to urgently address the issue which has become a national eyesore.
HURIWA said, “The next civil disobedience protests against police armed robbery and gross human rights violations will not be hijacked by reactionary forces embedded within government to destroy the kernel and objectives of the movement
“It is in the self-enlightened interest of President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Assembly and all political stakeholders, that urgent and transparent steps are adopted to weed out all the armed robbers, swindlers, extortion racketeering gangsters who have found their way into the Nigeria Police Force to avoid precipitating the kind of nation-wide protests that may further damage National economy in a bigger way than the last #ENDSARS PROTESTS two years back.”
While citing cases of the excesses of the men of the Nigerian Police Force, the group described the NPF as a body which is not different from kidnappers and terrorists.
HURIWA, therefore, urged Buhari and members of the National Assembly to rejig the Police Service Commission to compel the body to resume doing its statutory duties to eradicate police armed robbery attacks on civilians
