By Peter Dada
The senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District, Nicholas Tofowomo, has called on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to carry out meaningful police reform in Nigeria.
The senator said there was a need for the President to stop the extra-judicial killings of innocent Nigerians by security agents through proper reform.
The senator made the call in a statement issued by his media aide, Olumide Akinrinlola, on Thursday, while reacting to the death of a pregnant lawyer, Bolanle Raheem, who was shot dead by a policeman, ASP Drambi Vandi, at the Ajah area of Lagos State on Christmas Day.
According to federal lawmaker, Buhari should set up a committee for immediate police reform, saying he (Buhari) still had enough time to do that before leaving office in May 29, 2023.
He said, “I thank God that the president has made a very strong statement on the killing of Bolanle Raheem, a lawyer, who was killed in Lagos by the police.
“President Buhari should be aware that I have been agitating for meaningful police reform since I was inaugurated as a member of the 9th Senate in 2019. His Excellency still have significant time to set up a police reform conference as a legacy you can leave behind.
“The Nigeria Police Force is still operating an analogue structure while other countries have moved on to digital policing. Between 2019 to date, many lives have been lost to police through unlawful killings in Nigeria that were not given media attention.
“Ogunwa Ololade, one of my constituents, was killed in 2019 by SARS operatives who were shooting sporadically while chasing some internet fraudsters. Similarly, as an undergraduate at the University of Ife, three of my friends were gunned down before my eyes by the police when we mobilised ourselves on July 7, 1981, to protest the killing of Bukola Arogundade whose head was cut off by unknown assailants. We were going to the palace of the late Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, when the police suddenly attacked us on the road and killed three students.
“If it were British police, they would calm down the protesters and address them politely with a promise to investigate their matter, unlike our police that shot sporadically with teargas and live bullets and killed three promising students. This is part of the deficiency of the Nigeria police I am agitating for.
“Mr President, it is not too late to achieve police reform. The incoming president would continue from where you stop since government is a continuum. I appeal to Mr President to call a police reform conference. Nigerians will meet and deliberate on the way forward during the conference and the report will be submitted and your government can start the implementation without delay.”
While setting up the committee, Tofowomo stated that foreign police should be involved, lamenting that “we don’t have effective policing in Nigeria.
“Our police need training and retraining and I advise such training should be handled by foreign police. There is no shame in inviting an external police agency with the requisite experience to help us out.
“The problem with the Nigeria police is beyond a mere reform on the subject of weapons handling. Our police lack infrastructure, training, required personnel, digital gadgets, basic equipment, needed experience, weapons, and among other things required of digital policing. The articulated programme of action needed to reposition the police is now” the senator declared.
Source: The Punch
