A group of young professionals promoting peace in the country, under the aegis of Foundation for Peace Professionals, has called on the media, civil society and the global community to support the Nigeria Police against recent attack.
It was reported that over 22 officers
were allegedly killed during the recent #EndSARS protest in the country and over 205 police stations were reportedly damaged.
In a statement by executive director of the organization, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, on Sunday, the group also said that justice and peace building would be realized when all the slain officers and their families were taken care of.
The organization said that government, media, civil society and the global community must lead the charge in rallying round the police and ensuring that, just like the #Endsars protesters, police officers killed during the protest must be given justice and their families given platform to seek compensation.
According to Hamzat, Police officers are human beings who also have fundamental human rights, adding that the violence suffered by them during #EndSARS protest should not be swept under the carpet.
“We must not shut our eyes to the violence suffered by police during the protest, perpetrators of the violence must not be left to go unpunished and the family of victims must be supported to get justice.
“There is need to reconcile our society based on fairness and justice, but this justice should not be enjoyed by individual citizens against the institutions or by institutions against individuals, it should be an all round justice and reconciliation for all Nigerians in such a manner that nobody is left with the impression that violence against anyone could be justified under any guise.
“Police should be made to realize that brutality against citizens will not be left unpunished, while citizens should also be made to understand that violence against police is intolerable”.
He also said that victims of police brutality and even the #EndSARS protests stand a chance of getting justice and compensation through the ongoing independent judicial panel of inquiry on EndSARS, but police officers who were unlawfully deprived of their God given lives during the protest have not been provided any platform to receive justice, a development he said doesn’t encourage reconciliation.
“Police cannot be made to feel unwanted in our society, their lives cannot be made to seem unimportant and perpetrators of violence cannot be made to feel that they can get away with the cruelest human rights violation against police officers”
Hamzat maintained that, police is not the enemy of Nigeria to deserve the jungle justice meted out against them, they are simply a reflection of the society, and responding accordingly, adding that police officers are from amongst us, as our parents, our friends, our colleagues and our neighbors.
He therefore called on the media, CSO’s and the global community not to diminish the tragedy that befall the police by not giving it adequate attention, noting that killing over 22 police officers amounted to massacre against police.
End.
