Assistant Inspectors-General in charge of zonal commands and state Commissioners of Police have been ordered by the Inspector-General of Police, Adamu Mohammed to arrest, detain and dismiss policemen who violate the rights of the citizens.
In the memo dated October 5, 2020 and titled, ‘Order and directives: Restrictions on the operations of F-SARS, SARS, IRT, STS, state anti-kidnapping units and other special units under any nomenclature that operates in mufti across all formation, zones and state commands’, AIGs and CPs were further directed to charge errant policemen after being indicted in an orderly room trial.
It read;
“Any police personnel that, henceforth, abuses his or her powers in a manner that degrades, endangers or threatens the lives and other fundamental rights of the citizens shall be promptly arrested, processed through our internal disciplinary machinery, and if found culpable, shall be dismissed from service.
“In addition, such personnel could be charged in consonance with their level of criminal liability in the instance.
“Any personnel of the special units found violating the order must be arrested and escorted to the Force headquarters for appropriate actions. Weekly update on this operation must be forwarded to the office of the Inspector-General of Police for review and appropriate directives.
“The unprofessional activities of some special operatives had continued to drag the Force into acts that pit us against the citizens that we were engaged, paid and statutorily obligated to serve and protect.”
The IGP who also directed the CP X-Squad, Force Provost Marshall and IGP Monitoring Unit to immediately coordinate and deploy joint teams to enforce the order across all the 36 state commands and the Federal Capital Territory, noted that some policemen have been violating citizens’ rights in utter disregard for consistent warnings, previous orders, their professional training, international protocols, constitutional dictates, force policies, and ethical standards.
The Force Accountability Policy which holds officer professionally and criminally liable for the consequences of their actions was re-emphasized in the memo.
