The Country Director of Amnesty International, Isa Sanusi, has said no positive change has happened in Nigeria Police in personnel relationship with citizens.
Isa Sanusi said personnel of Nigeria Police have continued to extort, kill, torture and exploit Nigeria citizens they were supposed to protect.
He stated this in an interview with News Central on Tuesday. He claimed that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) which was notorious for unprofessional conduct was coming back into the force despite the government’s claim that the unit was banned.
He accused the Police of harassing and extortion young male Nigerians for looking good and having good mobile phones.
“The police brutality is still going on. And when the government disbanded SARS, we thought that SARS is gone. Unfortunately, the reports we have been receiving is that SARS is gradually coming back through the back door, because people are still being arrested by heavily armed policemen who always go around in mufti without uniform and in commando-like style, intercepting, arresting young people.
“Just because you dress well or you are using a very expensive phone and you are a young man, you are a target of this kind of policemen. And we have been receiving this kind of reports many, many times.
“So the problem has been endemic. And all the things that the government has been saying and the police saying, well, we are going to disband SARS. We are going to, it’s just cosmetic. It’s not a sincere attempt to address the problem.
“And police have not changed. They are still extorting money from people. They are still committing atrocities, torturing people in their custody, collecting money in the process of either investigation and using torture to extract information from people,” he said.
The Amnesty International Country Director regretted that the government has also failed to hold Nigeria Police accountable for the unprofessional conduct against the citizens.
Sanusi promised that the international human rights organization would continue to amplify the voices of the citizens against police unprofessional practices.
He called on Nigerians to stand strong until they get justice, stating that police checkpoints should be used for revenue collection.
“We receive these reports every day. And it’s unfortunate that the Nigerian government is not listening to young Nigerians by addressing this problem. And if effort is not being made to address this problem, I believe that Nigerian youths will not give up and continue to seek for justice.
“And we have to also continue amplifying their voices because the police are meant to protect people. They are not meant to kill people or to take money from them by force. They are not meant to take what does not belong to them. They are not meant to use the checkpoint as a source of revenue for themselves,” he stated.
He further called on the government to reform the police and recruit citizens that have integrity into the force.
“Therefore, we have to continue to ask the government to do the right thing, to reform the police, make it better, pay them well, and employ people into the police who have integrity so that the institution will serve the people,” Sanusi added.