Falana and Ojukwu spoke during the inauguration ceremony of the hearing of south west zone of the Presidential Panel on SARS Reform (2018) on alleged human rights violation by the SARS. The duo specifically pointed out that the parading of suspects totally negates the principle of fair hearing. The panel headed by Mr Ojukwu is expected to look into the level of rights infraction by SARS across the country with the mandate among others; investigate the veracity of allegations of human rights abuses and abuse of power made against SARS within the last two years. Represented at the ceremony were the Lagos Chief Judge, Justice Opeyemi Oke by the administrative judge, Justice Kazeem Alogba, the Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr Adeniji Kazeem, the Inspector General of Police, the state commissioner of police, Mr Imohim Edgar. The comptroller of prison, Lagos state command, Mr Tunde Ladipo, the commandant, the NSDC, Lagos State command, Tajudeen Balogun were also present . However, Falana, who gave a keynote address, said that given the right opportunity and equipments, the Nigeria police will perform wonderfully well beyond imaginations. Falana also called for more recruitments into the police, requesting that the government should remove all policemen guarding privileged individuals to make the police available for their civic duties. ‘We should all know that if given the right environment, our police officers will successfully police the country. Less than 200,000 police officers are actually policing over 200 million Nigerians because the rest of them (police) are guarding and protecting top public officers and some rogues. ” The IGP must take cognisance of this. Some men of questionable characters go around with about five policemen. Those are the people who ought to be questioned. We need more police men and women to guard our country. ” The lawyer called for the cooperation of Nigerians to expose any infraction on human rights of Nigerians in whatever form, while urging the panel to extend its work to the violations committed by other security outfits. Also speaking, Mr Ojukwu said the government did well by initiating the panel which would strengthen the statutory work of his commission. “The investigation will reshape the activities of SARS and allow probity into their operations. “The panel draws its membership from key strata of the society including the NHRC, Police Service Commission, Public Complaints Commission, Civil Society Groups and professional bodies , including the Nigerian Bar Association. “The public hearing is to increase access of Nigerians to the services of the commission and to seek for accountability where there is evidence to indicate that any officer(s) of SARS have been involved in acts amounting to human rights violation in the course of carrying out their law enforcement duties,” he said.]]>

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