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A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Gavel Nigeria has urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, to pay unscheduled visits to police stations at least once a month.
This move will allow the police grant bails where necessary and decongest the stations, Gavel said in a statement on Friday.
The NGO noted that the brutality of police officers which has experienced a surge in recent times. The statement noted Gavel’s involvement in the #EndSARS campaign.
“The #EndSARS and #REFORMPOLICENG were developed to protest the scourge of police brutality and demand an end to the Special Anti- Robbery Squad unit of the police who has been fingered repeatedly as a major perpetrator of this heinous act.
“In a joint coordination of online receipts of online complaints by the movement of #EndSARS led by Segun Awosanya and Gavel, an NGO, it has been revealed that both the young and old are now victims of this menace ranging from inordinate killing of people, such as Madam Kudi -#Justice4kudi; an elderly woman who was allegedly killed by a police officer, incessant extortion of young men, sudden disappearance of individuals who are later found in SARS custody while the family members already believe are missing.
“In one of the matters being handled by Gavel, a organisation that connects Victims of police brutality to free legal aid lawyers using tech, a particular complainants informed the Gavel team that his friend has been in police custody for days and they have already believed him to be missing, until they got the information that he is in SARS custody and have been denied the opportunity to call family members. The complainant informed Gavel that be had to bribe the police officers before he was eventually allowed, after several failed attempts, to see his friend.”
The NGO noted that the Police Complaints Response Unit in 2017 received 2523 complaints and only 114 numbers were found to be false.
Gavel in its letter wants Mr Onnoghen to pay unscheduled visits to police stations.
“In the view of the above pandemic, the Gavel wrote to the Chief Justice of Nigeria on the need for the Judiciary to invoke Section 34 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act which mandates Magistrate to pay unscheduled visits to police station at least once a month, demand for list of accused persons in their custody and grant bail where necessary. Gavel team believes the society needs all hands on deck to stem this suffocating tide and hold the police accountable.
“Some months ago, Gavel wrote the National Human Rights Commission to demand a public inquiry into the activities of SARS which the NHRC promised to implement.”
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