Search This Blog

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Police authorities protest Human Rights Watch report on Nigeria.

The Nigeria Police Force has accused the Human Rights Watch of failing to recognise its responses and explanations to its enquiry in the latest human rights report.

Force Public Relations Officer,Emmanuel Ojukwu was reacting to the report of the international watchdog, which had accused the police of corruption and human rights abuses.

Ojukwu said the police had come a long way from its colonial oppressive era and was striving to meet its obligations to the citizenry in spite of the enormous challenges it faced, including under funding.

According to him,As it were, some of the recommendations of the report, on the way forward, are largely pedestrian as they understandably do not reflect proper grasp and understanding of the realities of policing in an emergent democracy.

He said It is certainly not the whole truth to aver that the Nigeria police personnel are of predators than protectors.

Ojukwu, however, said police personnel found involved in corruption, extortion, arbitrary arrests, torture and extra-judicial killings had been sanctioned.

In this respect, Ojukwu recalled that in the last one year, 764 senior, and 8,831 junior officers involved in such acts were sanctioned.

He said the Nigeria Police Force maintains an effective internal control mechanism to check abuses of human rights or professional misconduct.

The spokesman said The force is also subject to many external oversight bodies far from her control and manipulation.

He said Nigerians had confidence in the ability of the police to protect their lives and property, saying the demand for the services of the police had gone beyond the shores of the country.

No comments:

Post a Comment