The Independent Investigative Panel on Alleged Human Rights Violations by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad and other units of the Nigerian Police Force on Wednesday said that it had been abandoned by the police team since its resumption of sitting.
The situation elicited confusion among panellists, journalists and victims’ families as progress was not made in the dispensation of justice.
The Deputy Director, Media Relations and External Linkages, Fatimah Agwai Mohammed, in a statement issued in Abuja, said the abandonment was evident “in the near absence of the police legal team at the panel despite proper information and hearing notices.”
According to her, in the resumed sitting, the panel had only one police counsel, Kenneth Egbuchua, who represented the institution, and policemen that were listed as respondents in all the cases before the panel.
She said, “When contacted by the commission, lead counsel to the police at panel James Idachaba, who was also not present at the panel, said that he has detailed members of the police legal team to be at the panel unfailingly as he has an assignment outside his jurisdiction.
“The stressful-looking Ebuchua who goes in and out of the sitting intermittently seems to be overwhelmed with the task he has to single-handedly undertake at the panel.
The panel at a point had to wait for him to come back before it proceeds when he went to answer the call of nature.
“Such a needless vacuum ought not to have been created if the police had taken their duties at the panel seriously in the last couple of days after the panel’s resumption.”
The panel had suffered several setbacks and adjournments due to the lack of cooperation on the part of the police whose counsel has either refused to appear before the panel or refused to send signals to compel its many officers involved in cases before the panel to appear before it.
The NHRC said, “It should be put on record that the role of the police in the protection of lives and properties of citizens can never be over-emphasized.
“The panel members have severally warned the police not to frustrate the effort of the panel but this seems not to have made any impact considering their attitude at the resumed sitting of 2022.”
The acting chairman of the panel, Garba Tetengi who stood in for the panel Chairman, Justice Sulaiman Galadima, believed that “the police have abandoned us, they are just leaving one counsel here.”
Agwai said, “The NHRC is therefore using this medium to call on the hierarchy of the police institution to do the needful and take the IIP-SARS panel seriously saying it is determined to fight for the rights and dignity of every person living in Nigeria.
“In the event that the police fail to heed this call and take the necessary steps to discharge their responsibilities at the panel, the commission will be left with the option to invoke its powers under the NHRC Amendment Act 2010.”
