IN view of a new code of conduct being launched by
the Federal Government towards effective policing, the Delta State
Police Command has been accused of extra-judicially killing an average
of seven to eight suspects monthly in the state in 2012 alone.
This accusation was levelled against the Nigeria Police by the national coordinator of Forum for Justice & Human Rights Defence (FJHD), Mr Oghenejabor Ikimi, in a release made available to journalists in Warri, over the weekend.
TRIBUNE
It will be recalled that the state police commissioner, Mr Okechukwu Aduba, had, while reeling out its achievements in 2012 in Asaba, boasted that his officers had killed no fewer than 92 armed robbery and kidnap suspects.
The group flayed the command’s extrajudicial killings as not only barbaric, but a reckless abuse of a security outfit entrusted with powers to secure the society and its citizenry, accusing the force of failing to expatiate circumstances surrounding the suspects’ execution.
“The attention of members of the Forum for Justice & Human Rights Defence has been drawn to the recent statement of the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr Okechukwu Aduba, made in a press briefing in Asaba to the effect that the Delta Police Command had, in the year 2012, killed 92 armed robbery and kidnap suspects, and we describe same as barbaric and a reckless abuse of executive powers by the command particularly when the said police boss failed to explain to the public the circumstances wherein the said suspects were executed,” the statement read in part.
According to the group, the killings amounted to seven to eight summary execution of armed robbery and kidnap suspects monthly with no trial against section 36 sub section 5 of the 1999 Constitution which grants the right of every Nigerian to the presumption of innocence.
Condemning the act as callous, Ikimi noted that the “dangerous scenario being championed by the Delta police boss is such that innocent suspects accused of the offences of either armed robbery or kidnapping can be murdered extra-judicially with impunity before they are arraigned in a law court,” describing it as a dangerous development in a so-called civilised society.
Ikimi called on the Federal Government as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, to show commitment in adopting legislations to stamp out extra-judicial killings, torture and death penalty in the country with immediate effect.
This accusation was levelled against the Nigeria Police by the national coordinator of Forum for Justice & Human Rights Defence (FJHD), Mr Oghenejabor Ikimi, in a release made available to journalists in Warri, over the weekend.
TRIBUNE
It will be recalled that the state police commissioner, Mr Okechukwu Aduba, had, while reeling out its achievements in 2012 in Asaba, boasted that his officers had killed no fewer than 92 armed robbery and kidnap suspects.
The group flayed the command’s extrajudicial killings as not only barbaric, but a reckless abuse of a security outfit entrusted with powers to secure the society and its citizenry, accusing the force of failing to expatiate circumstances surrounding the suspects’ execution.
“The attention of members of the Forum for Justice & Human Rights Defence has been drawn to the recent statement of the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr Okechukwu Aduba, made in a press briefing in Asaba to the effect that the Delta Police Command had, in the year 2012, killed 92 armed robbery and kidnap suspects, and we describe same as barbaric and a reckless abuse of executive powers by the command particularly when the said police boss failed to explain to the public the circumstances wherein the said suspects were executed,” the statement read in part.
According to the group, the killings amounted to seven to eight summary execution of armed robbery and kidnap suspects monthly with no trial against section 36 sub section 5 of the 1999 Constitution which grants the right of every Nigerian to the presumption of innocence.
Condemning the act as callous, Ikimi noted that the “dangerous scenario being championed by the Delta police boss is such that innocent suspects accused of the offences of either armed robbery or kidnapping can be murdered extra-judicially with impunity before they are arraigned in a law court,” describing it as a dangerous development in a so-called civilised society.
Ikimi called on the Federal Government as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, to show commitment in adopting legislations to stamp out extra-judicial killings, torture and death penalty in the country with immediate effect.
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