Police will respect human rights- IGP

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, has assured Nigerians that the force will respect and protect the fundamental human rights of citizens, as enshrined in its code of conduct. Abubakar gave the assurance on Thursday in Abuja at a stakeholders' meeting organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

He said as a lead agency in terms of internal security, the Police Force had not rested on its oars in working with NHRC and other stakeholders to protect people’s rights. Abubakar, who was represented by the Commissioner of Police, Legal, Nwodibo Ekechukwu, said he was working towards ensuring that the officers and men respect the human rights of citizens.

``The meeting is timely, particularly at this time when the country is undergoing transformation and we are a lead agency in the county in terms of internal security and maintenance of law and order.

``The Police is determined to ensure that the observance of human rights is well enshrined in the police and that it becomes a norm that we observe the rights of the citizens of this country,” he said.

He said the police had made tremendous improvement with regard to officers' respecting the rights of the citizens they were meant to protect.

``We have made remarkable improvement with regards to the conduct of officers and men, basically, before now, some really did not appreciate what we are expected to do or not to do.

``Since we now have a handy manual that specifically states the dos and don’ts in their personal and official conduct.  I can tell you the impact is tremendous.''

He said the conduct of officers would be monitored on a daily basis. The Executive Secretary, NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe, said the meeting was meant to discuss, among others, the need to protect the rights of police officers and other security agents.

He said there was urgent need to provide security agents with requisite equipment that would enable them carry out their duties effectively, including the protection of their own lives. He equally canvassed for the need to ensure effective life insurance policies in favour of officers as well as better welfare of families of deceased officers.

``The primary institution on which the state relies for the maintenance of law and order is the police.

``In order to achieve this objective, police officers are empowered to use limited coercive power thereby creating conditions for the realisation as well as possible infraction of human rights.

``The partnership between the commission, police, civil society organisations and MDAs is, therefore, aimed at fostering good working relationship with the police on human rights issues and mainstreaming human rights into the operations of the police force.”

Also speaking, the Chairman, National Committee against Torture, Dr Samson Ameh, said there was need for more awareness with regards to protection of security agents in the country. He said in as much as they were meant to protect citizens, their rights were equally paramount given the level of insecurity in the country today.

Ameh commended the security agencies for putting necessary measures to ensure that officers protected themselves in the course of protecting citizens. ``We have been holding seminars and workshops to tell officers how to react to attacks but subject to the fact that you should not use disproportionate force.

``The unfortunate thing is that the public thinks officers should not be protected as well, so this meeting is aimed at looking at how officers can also be protected.”