The Pan Igbo sociocultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has declared that the ongoing demonstration by Nigerian youths against police brutality, tagged #EndSARS, is for the good of the country and should be supported by all, even as it alleged that the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) had killed more than 100 Igbo youths.
National Publicity Secretary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Mazi Chuks Ibegbo, told Sunday Telegraph in an exclusive chat at the weekend that the apex Igbo body supports the protest, and advised the Federal Government to urgently embark on the reformation of the police and the security system in general.
Ohanaeze also called on government to investigate allegations against the operatives of the disbanded SARS across the country and punish those found to have committed extrajudicial killings and other serious offences.
“The protest is welcomed, our security agents over the years have been brutalizing innocent Nigerians; they have been committing extrajudicial killings all over the country. The SARS offices are butchering offices. The SARS in Awkuzu, Anambra State, is a dungeon, a killing field; the SARS offices all over the country are the same but worst of all is the one at Awkuzu.
“They killed more than 100 innocent Igbo youths and dropped them at Ezu River. The SARS and police in general and all our security agents are anti-people; they need to be reformed seriously.
“I don’t know what they teach them at Police Colleges as human rights, but whatever it is, it’s a welcome development they were disbanded but it’s not enough to disband them, they have to be reformed, there has to be a comprehensive reform of the police starting from the IG to the corporals.
“The demonstration is good, it’s welcomed. Any of the policemen that kill or injure any of the protesters should face the law and should be dealt with according to the law.
“Nigerians will now sleep with their two eyes closed, most of this security agents, some of them are armed robbers and if the police is reformed and we have a peoples’ police, Nigerians can now go and sleep with their two eyes closed with the assurance that they now have a peoples’ police different from the present security agencies we have that are almost armed robbers. (Sunday Telegraph)
