Terrible country ! Kickback everywhere !! Extortion of parents over birth registration ‘should be harshly punished’

A child protection specialist at UNICEF, Sharon Oladiji, has advocated harsh punishment for officials of National Population Commission (NPC) who demand cash gift from parents seeking birth registration for their children.

Participants at a two-day media dialogue jointly organised by the federal ministry of information, culture and tourism, the NPC and the UNICEF in Kano during the week were told about some parents’ complaint of being fleeced by health officials before having their children registered.

But Oladiji, who presented a paper on “Current Situation of Birth Registration in Nigeria”, decried the development, insisting that the practice was criminal and unjustifiable.

“Birth registration is free for all children between age 0 and 17 and there is need for parents to be sensitised to this reality,” Oladiji said.

“The importance that government and the UNICEF have attached to the birth registration cannot be overemphasised and this underscores the need for all stakeholders to offer wholesome support.”

In her presentation titled “The historical perspective of birth registration in Nigeria”, NPC’s vital registration director, Habsat Husseini, stated that although civil registration in Nigeria dated back to 1863, it had yet to reflect positively on birth registration across the country in the 21st century.

“Only 35% of births are recorded in Nigeria’s health facilities,” she said while stressing that funds paucity had threatened smooth operations at NPC, even though the commission had offices in the 774 local government areas in the country.

Husseini, who condemned the alleged corrupt activities of the birth registration officials, however disclosed that measures had been put in place to deal decisively with those found wanting in their duties.

UNICEF’s communication specialist, Geoffery Njoku, urged a collective action towards achieving what he called sustained birth registration in Nigeria. “It is the only way that planning for the future of Nigeria can be guaranteed,” he asserted.

The media dialogue followed a series of similar events staged by UNICEF in collaboration with the information ministry and NPC aimed at sensitising Nigerians on public health and development. - TheCable

Chemical emission claims seven in Nnewi

No fewer than seven persons have died under a mysterious circumstance following continues burning lignite in Umuzu Mbana, Otolo Nnewi in Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The lignite which sends out gas with irritating sulphurous odour, has also led to the admission of scores in different hospitals in the area.

President General of the community, Tony Afam Muodielo who made the disclosure in a press statement on Saturday, lamented the devastating effect of a dangerous chemical discovered at a site in that community sometimes in March.

He regretted that government has not done much to save his my people from the killer chemical.

According to him, a new dimension to the problem was the smoke from the site that enveloped the entire community with very offensive and irritating odour that subjected residents to suffocation every evening.

“The emission has recently become more damaging and escalating. Surroundings of the chemical site are caving in and the emission becomes stronger. We have tried to put out the fire burning underground to no avail and we decided to leave the rains to deal with it.

“But despite the heavy rains so far experienced this year, the fire keeps on raging from the ground as if the rains are fueling it and it produces thick smokes.

“Last night, after a little rain, we were unable to sleep. The most astonishing thing is that we have been recording sudden deaths in recent time.

“Within a space of two months, we have lost seven persons and we do not known the cause of their death. But if you put two and two together, you find out that it is not natural death. We never recorded that number of deaths in the past in this community,” he lamented.

Muodielo further revealed that the incident was first discovered in December 2017 at the community’s stream site called Oduga which suddenly dried up and fire in its stead began to burn at the site, underground.

He said that youths of the area had been deployed on several occasion to put out the fire but could not.

“A team of geologists from Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli Anambra State had visited the site and discovered that there was a dangerous chemical deposited at the site with the recommendations that government authorities should as a matter of urgency quench the fire to save the community from further exposure to the dangerous chemicals,” he hinted.

The community leader called on the Federal authorities, Anambra State government and every other agency to come to the rescue of the community before the situation gets out of control.

He said it had been recommended that residents should be taking liquid milk everyday to douse the effect but decried the impossibility of poor families to afford that, saying that he did not have the capacity to buy milk for the entire villagers. - The Nation

Ohanaeze : Restructure now or Nigeria may not survive

Pan-Igbo group, Ohaneze has again warned that Nigeria may not survive as an entity if political restructuring of the country is not carried out.

The Coordinator of Ohaneze Youth Wing in the South South, Chief Arthur Ugwa, gave the warning on Saturday when the group visited the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

He argued that restructuring the nation would foster even development and ensure peaceful co-existence in all parts of the country.

“Restructuring is the only thing that will save this nation from going into extinction. Different regions must be able to manage their resources for accelerated development”, NAN quoted him as saying.

“Our leaders have been crying for restructuring over the years. It’s incumbent on the leadership of this country to consider this option for a united Nigeria.”

Ugwa noted that the visit to Ijaw youth leaders was imperative for the South South and South East geo-political zones to continue to build stronger relationships and ensure safety of each other.

The Ohaneze youth leader warned that Nigeria could no longer tolerate divisive tendencies and that restructuring was the way out for peace and togetherness.

The President of the Central Zone of the IYC, Mr Tare Porri, said that with current challenges in the country, the way out was for the country to embrace restructuring.

He disclosed that the group would carry out a referendum on restructuring, ahead of the upcoming general elections and that only people who supported restructuring would be voted into office. - Daily Post

Uncle London is back

President Muhammadu Buhari has returned from his vacation in London, UK. 

Buhari on Saturday arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja after his 10 working days holiday.

The president left Nigeria on August 3, after transmitting a letter of notification to the leadership of the national assembly.

He handed over power to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to serve as acting president in his absence.

WHILE BUHARI WAS AWAY

Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) barricaded the entrance of the national assembly complex in an operation that lasted hours.

Matthew Seiyefa took over as acting director-general of the DSS after Lawal Daura was sacked following the siege.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) mounted pressure on Senate President Bukola Saraki to step down after he left the ruling party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Federal lawmakers met with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to consider the commission’s budget for the 2019 polls.

The APC secured three more seats at the senate after its members soared to victory in the Bauchi south, Katsina north and Lokoja/Kogi senatorial bye-elections. - TheCable

Bans on full-face Muslim veils are spreading across Europe

Earlier this month, Denmark became the fifth country in Europe to introduce a ban on face coverings in public places. The policy is widely viewed as being targeted at Muslim women who wear veils such as the niqab.

Despite protests in the country’s capital, police have started enforcing the law in earnest. On Aug. 3, a 28-year-old wearing the niqab, which covers the entire body except the eyes, was attacked by another Danish woman who tried to pull her veil off, the Guardian reported. Police fined the Muslim woman $156.

Legislation around full-face veils has grown increasingly common in Europe, particularly in the past three years. Six countries have now passed nationwide laws that partially or fully ban face veils in public places. The latest is the Netherlands, which voted in June to partially ban face veils in locations such as schools and hospitals, but not on public streets.

Several other European countries, including Spain and Italy, have banned them in individual cities and towns, and even more have reviewed proposals for bans at a local or national level.
Widespread calls for legislation outlawing face veils in public places started in France, which in 2011 became the first European country to introduce a nationwide ban. At the time, French President Nicolas Sarkozy argued during a state-of-the-nation address that the burqa — a head-to-toe covering with mesh screening the eyes, mainly worn in Afghanistan — was a “sign of subservience and debasement.”

"I want to say solemnly, the burqa is not welcome in France. In our country, we can’t accept women prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity. That’s not our idea of freedom,” Sarkozy said to rapturous applause from lawmakers, the Guardian reported.
Another common justification for the ban is that face veils conceal the identity of the wearer, posing a security threat.

In Latvia, for example, where just three women among the country’s population of 2 million are estimated to wear the burqa, debates around a proposed ban on face veils have frequently featured concerns over security. In 2016, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the former president of Latvia, told the New York Times that “covering one’s face in public at a time of terrorism presents a danger to society. … You could carry a rocket launcher under your veil. It’s not funny.”

Politicians also frequently contend that face veils are inconsistent with existing “European values,” mounting what experts describe as a “clash of cultures” argument.

In 2017, Germany’s then-interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, called for a nationwide ban on face veils in an editorial that stated: “We are an open society. We show our face. We are not burqa.” Earlier this year, while Denmark’s Parliament debated the face-veil bill that would later become law, Justice Minister Soren Pape Poulsen contended that a person concealing her face was “disrespectful” to others and “incompatible with the values in Danish society.”

Regardless of the justification, policies governing head veils are likely to grow more prevalent in the coming years, particularly as European governments try to stave off the growing influence of right-wing leaders in their countries, experts said.

While the percentage of women who wear the niqab or burqa is tiny in most European countries, said Akbar Ahmed, a professor at American University, their veils are visible markers of the Islamic community that right-wing leaders point to as evidence of the “Islamization” of Europe.

And as right-wing groups gain more traction, even moderate or liberal administrations may feel pressure to make a strategic choice to ban face veils, explained Asma Uddin, a senior scholar and faculty member at the Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute. Perhaps more importantly, she added, governments in Europe now feel like they have license to take such steps because of the legal precedents set by their neighbors.

In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld the French ban on face veils, ruling against a 24-year-old Muslim woman who argued that she wanted to wear her burqa as a matter of religious freedom. In 2017, the ECHR issued similar decisions against two Belgian women, ruling that the country’s ban on face veils does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

As Uddin explained, “We can say all these things about them violating freedom of religion, but over there, their own highest court is saying to them, ‘You’re not. You’re justified in what you’re doing.’ ” - The Washington Post

Niger : Telecommunications Company to employ 500 youths

A telecommunications company, Broad-based Communications limited has disclosed that 500 youths would be engaged in the telecommunications network that would be set up in Niger state.

The Representative of the CEO, Broadband Communications Limited, Chris Erewele disclosed this at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Niger state Government in Minna.

According to Erewele, the partnership with the state government is to operate and build a open access fiber optic telecommunications network to cover the entire state adding that the 500 youths would be employed at the first phase of the commencement of the network.

Erewele said that the project which is worth billions of natural would boost the internally generated revenue of the state and ensure technological advancement adding that the project is expected to be implemented in phases which would start with the state capital and Ministries, Departments and Agencies before covering other parts of the state.

Speaking in behalf of the Niger state government,  the Managing Director of the Niger State Development Company, Mohammed Kure said the MOU seeks to create a common platform for exploring, expanding and developing areas of open access fibre optic telecommunication network to cover Niger state.

He added that the MOU would further expand the current level of economy and investment especially in the area of youth employment, e-governance, security, communication technology and internally generated revenue saying that other areas of benefit would be commerce with specific focus on ease of doing business and infrastructural development for the benefit of the citizens.

Kure said that Broadbased Communications Limited shall finance, build, operate and maintain the open access fibre optic telecommunications network in Niger state. - The nation

Why we dumped PDP-led coalition against Buhari, APC – ADP

The Action Democratic Party (ADP) on Saturday explained why it opted out of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-led Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).

The coalition was formed in June to dislodge President Muammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019.

Speaking at the South-West stakeholders’ meeting, ADP National Chairman, Yabagi Sanni, said the party dumped the coalition due to conflict of ideologies.

He noted that the party had joined initially on invitation, but soon realised the parties and people in the coalition had no moral credentials to rescue the country.

“Yes, initially we were part of the coalition, but we later opted out. We left because we felt the coalition was going nowhere”, NAN quoted him as saying.

“The same people who looted the treasury and who had been there and did not perform are the same people claiming they would rescue Nigeria.

“If we remain part of them, how do we convince Nigerians we are the credible alternative needed to rescue this country?”

Sanni condemned the unfolding leadership tussle in the National Assembly, saying it was proof that members cared more about themselves than the people.

He urged Nigerians to vote out the current membership of National Assembly and elect leaders who had their interest at heart. - Daily Post

Three new bills signed into law by Osinbajo

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has signed into law three Bills transmitted by the National Assembly.

The Acts were the Federal Capital Territory Civil Service Commission (Establishment) Act, 2018; the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, 2018; and the Federal School of Medical Laboratory Technology (Science) Jos (Establishment) Act, 2018.

According to the statement, “The Federal Capital Territory Civil Service Commission (Establishment) Act, 2018 provides the framework, as envisaged by Section 303 of the Constitution, for the administration of the Civil Service of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The Commission established under the Act will, without prejudice to the powers of the President, be responsible for the appointment and disciplinary control of staff in the Civil Service of the FCT.

“The Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, 2018 establishes the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria for forestry research, education and training. The Institute, with its Headquarters in Ibadan, will have outstations and colleges in each of the six geo-political zones of the Federation. The institute will, among others, conduct research into the development of agro-forestry systems for the integration of forest trees of economic importance into farming systems; ecology of pests and diseases and their control; and the control of desertification, soil erosion and deforestation.

“The Federal School of Medical Laboratory Technology (Science) Jos (Establishment) Act, 2018 establishes the School of Medical Laboratory Technology (Science) Jos, a diploma and certificate-awarding Institute, for training and research in Medical Laboratory Science and other related fields.” - Daily Post

Nothing should lead to postponement of 2019 polls - INEC

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says  no condition should warrant the postponement of the 2019 elections.

Yakubu said this on Friday while responding to Aso Rock correspondents who asked if the delay in the passage of the commission’s budget could lead to the postponement of the exercise.

The INEC chairman said under his leadership, the commission has been very transparent, adding that this is the first time in the history of the country that citizens would know the line by line expenditure of the commission.

“I have said this over and over again, there are no conditions under which elections should be postponed, under section 26 of the Electoral Act, the date is formed and fixed, February 16, 2019,” he said.

“We issued the timetable way in advance for the very first time in the history of our nation, citizens of Nigeria know when elections will take place one year in advance. It has never happen before.

“Secondly, also for the very first time in the history of our country, that citizens know the budget of the electoral commission, that budget has never been defended before the national assembly, as citizens know line by line how much the commission proposed, what the money is going to be spent on, I think I am very happy with this process.”

He said as of Friday, 12.1 million people had been registered for the 2019 polls.

The INEC chairman said the newly registered Nigerians would be added to the existing 70 million voters.

“Well, you know we started the continuous voters registration exercise on 27th April 2017, so we have been as provided for in our constitution registering voters consistently in the last 16 months,” he said.

“In response to appeal by Nigerians, we have created more centers for the registration but finally decided that we should suspended the process as provided for by the law, six months to the elections. But gain in response to appeal by Nigerians we have now extended to the end of the month.

“As at saturday last week the 11th of August, we have registered 12.1 million citizens, this will eventually be added to the 70 million voters that is already registered for the 2019 general elections. We have voters register of over 80 million citizens.” - TheCable

Why nobody could tell Sam Loco to quit smoking – Son

Omoruyi Efe, the son of deceased veteran actor, Sam Loco has relieved some fond memories he had of his father, stating that no one dared his father to stop smoking.

Omoruyi said his father, Sam Loco was planning his retirement by building a farm in Abakaliki before death took him away.

He told Vanguard: “Nobody could tell him to stop smoking because he was a very strict person. You couldn’t tell him something like that, so we didn’t see it as our business. However, we really miss him in the house because he had a very good sense of humour but he was a very busy person.

“We all expected him to retire so that we would have enough time to spend with him. He was also planning towards his retirement by building a farm in Abakaliki but death took him away suddenly,” he said.

The late actor’s son further disclosed that he admired his father especially as an actor, and Sam Loco hoped he would follow in his footsteps.

“I admired my daddy as an actor. All through my primary school days, I was into acting. He wanted me to go into acting after my WAEC before I got admission into the university and I was enrolled into the acting academy for a while before I gained admission into the university. I am very sure if I go into acting full time now, my dad would be very proud of me but I don’t think I would go back to acting anytime soon,” the late veteran’s son said.

In 2011, the Nigerian entertainment was thrown into mourning after the death of popular comic actor, Sam Loco Efe was announced. The veteran actor died of cardiac arrest.

Aside from being one of the funniest actors of his generation, Sam Loco was known to be a heavy smoker. - Daily Post

‘National Assembly should not be a retiring home for governors’

An aspirant to the northern senatorial district seat of Cross River State, Comrade Godwin Nyiam, has said the Senate should not serve a place for governors to retire to after their tenures in their various states.

Nyiam, who intends to pursue his ambition on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), said the senate is supposed to be a place for vibrant people with the capacity to bring good governance to their constituents, not for those who have exhausted their ideas.

“Unfortunately, in Nigeria, the National Assembly has become an office for past and immediate past Governors who are supposed to have joined the retirees club because they no longer have something in stock to offer to their people,” he said.

The senatorial hopeful called on the electorates not to vote past governors but instead vote people fresh people with fresh ideas to enable them make laws that can improve the fortunes of the country.

“I see myself as a young person with capacity to perform, given the fact that I haven’t stolen money from anywhere to make it possible for operatives of the Economic and Financial Commission EFCC to chase me about to make me lose focus. This will make me function well. It is not all about money or god-fatherism, but about the passion for the service,” he said.

Nyiam said he would sponsor bills that would be not just relevant to his constituency but to the entire country if he successfully gets to the Senate.

“The National Assembly should not be a place for retirees, but a place for researchers. Readers are leaders. Why don’t we look at what is happening in developed nations of the world, instead of sending people who were supposed to join the retirees club to go make laws for us. Sending such retirees to represent the people in the legislature negatively impacts on the socio-political economy of the nation,” Nyiam said. - The Nation

Rise in deathbed weddings prompts call to protect cohabiting couples

The government is being urged to provide legal protection to millions of cohabiting couples as evidence emerges of increases in the number of civil partnerships and deathbed weddings.

In a letter to the Guardian on the third Saturday in August – the busiest day for marriages this year – a coalition of legal organisations and family charities has called on ministers to update legislation and tackle the myth of common-law marriage rights in England and Wales.

“Today is the busiest day of the year for weddings,” the letter declares, “yet marriage numbers are declining. Currently one in eight adults in England and Wales are cohabiting, a trend steadily increasing since 2002.”

Couples mistakenly believe they have the same legal and financial rights and protections as married couples, say the organisations, which include the Bar Council, the Law Society, Resolution, Relate, Rights of Women, OnlyMums and OnlyDads.

“As a crucial step towards securing fair outcomes for millions of people, we urge the government to take steps to bring forward, as a minimum, basic protections for cohabiting couples.”

The number of families formed by unmarried, cohabiting couples has rocketed in recent years, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In 1996 there were 1.5 million cohabiting families in the UK; by 2017, it had risen to 3.3 million.

Mid-August and early September are traditionally the most popular times to marry. According to a survey by Bridebook, the online wedding planner, this year 18 August is the busiest day for ceremonies.

Couples who choose not to marry or enter into a civil partnership have no benefit or inheritance rights when a partner dies, and their economic vulnerability is a worry for family lawyers and charity workers.

Civil partnerships are currently available only to same-sex couples, but the supreme court ruled this summer that it was discriminatory to deny them to heterosexual couples.

Campaigners believe opening up less formal civil partnerships would encourage millions of opposite-sex cohabiters to enter into a legally constituted relationship. Even the Marriage Foundation supports extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples, believing they are “infinitely preferable to unthinking and risky cohabitation”.

Figures from the ONS this week show there was a 2% rise in new civil partnerships last year, the second consecutive year in which there has been an increase. The government expected them to decline sharply after legalisation of gay marriage in 2014.

Significantly, the figures show more than half of all civil partners were 50 or older, suggesting couples are belatedly realising the advantages of formalising their partnerships.

There is also evidence from family lawyers and the Home Office of an increase in the number of deathbed marriages. The most high-profile this year involved Sir Ken Dodd, who married his long-term partner, Anne Jones, two days before he died. Commentators suggested the comedian would have the last laugh on the taxman by saving her from inheritance duties.

Passport Office figures record a category of registrar general’s licence for urgent marriages and civil partnerships, usually in hospitals. It also includes weddings in jails. In the three months to May 2018 there were 190 such licences issued, while in 2015 the quarterly average was only around 148.

Upon the death of a partner, unmarried cohabitants do not have rights to their pension, are exposed to inheritance tax and cannot claim certain benefits. Scotland, by contrast, has granted cohabitants legal rights since 2006.

Jo Edwards, a former chair of the family law organisation Resolution, said she was aware of an increase in deathbed marriages. “The difference in treatment of cohabitants on the death of one partner, when contrasted with the position of their married counterparts, has been brought into sharp focus again recently by the Siobhan McLaughlin case heard by the supreme court,” she said.

“The stark reality is that most sleepwalk into difficulties, unaware of their lack of rights as an unmarried couple until it is too late. Ultimately, the best protection as the law stands is to get married; that is why so-called deathbed weddings are a growing phenomenon. But given the emotional angst that this can cause at an already difficult time, [it’s] far better to change the law and offer cohabitants protection on death.”

Karon Walton, the chief legal officer at Solicitors for the Elderly, said: “It is financial security and pension rights that drives this. People don’t talk about when they will die and it gets to the stage where someone is on their deathbed and panic sets in. That’s why we need to raise awareness.” - The Guardian 

Lecturers who are not doctors ‘should no longer’ teach medical students

Bodies of medical and dental practitioners in Nigeria say lecturers who are not medical doctors will no longer be allowed to teach medical students.

At a meeting convened by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) and Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) in Abuja, the stakeholders said only medical doctors with degrees in basic medical sciences should lecture students.

The medical practitioners also lamented the pass rate of foreign trained medical students, who sit for medical examination in the country.

They said the high failure rate in post-graduate medical education is a reflection of poor training and assessment methods which needs improvement.

“Medical doctors with degrees in basic medical sciences should lecture basic medical sciences in medical schools. Lecturers in basic medical sciences who are not medical doctors should be phased out over time,” the report read.

“There are 42 universities where undergraduate medical education is taking place in Nigeria. Thirty two of the medical schools are fully accredited while 10 are partially accredited as at 2018. There are nine dental schools and three specialised universities of medical sciences.

“About 3,700 medical students gain admission yearly. The pass rate of foreign trained medical students who sat for the MDCN exam has been reducing over time with the lowest being 15% in February 2018.

“Undergraduate medical education in Nigeria is challenged by outdated curriculum, lecturers who are not medical doctors especially at the basic medical sciences level, insufficient or lack of teaching aids, sub-standard library, decay of infrastructure and laboratories, lecturers who are not themselves educators, and inadequately equipped clinics.

“MDCN should ensure that graduating medical students have places to do horsemanship. It was suggested that private hospitals, general hospitals and some district hospitals can be affiliated with teaching hospitals and federal medical centres for the purpose of increasing the spaces available for house job.” - TheCable

2019: How Buhari will get 13m votes – Lauretta Onochie

Lauretta Onochie, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Aide on Social Media has listed how she thinks over 13 million citizens will vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in the upcoming 2019 Presidential election.

Onochie listed on her Twitter handle 500,000 N-Power beneficiaries as well as 625,000 farmers from the Burhari’s Anchor borrowing programme.

She listed further two million petty traders receiving the Buhari collateral free loan and parents of 8.5 million children benefiting from the School Feeding Programme.

Others she listed include 900,000 cooks engaged for the School Feeding Programme, 100,000 farmers supply foodstuffs for the school feeding programme, and over 400,000 poor families receiving the Buhari conditional cash transfer.

She also tweeted that “As APC prepares to take Delta and Akwa Ibom states, mass defection across Delta state from PDP to APC, looming.

“This is just one Ward at Umunede in Ika North East of Delta state yesterday. We’ve had enough! We must #End20YearsOfPDPMiseryIn in Delta state#SaiBaba.” - Daily Post

SARS overhaul: Group makes case for detainees, hails Osinbajo

A human rights group, Citizens Unite for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE-Nigeria) has tasked the Nigeria police force to declare the number of detainees being held by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)  to the public.

The group which hailed the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo,  for directing the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris to overhaul SARS, also demanded that all detainees and awaiting trials in the police cells and prisons across the country be charged to court to seek justice.

CURE-Nigeria passionately appealed to the Federal Government to ensure that police carry out the action.

In a statement made available to The Nation,  the organization’s Executive Director, Mr. Sylvester Uhaa, noted that the Acting President’s  directive, “although belated, is a welcome development and a right step in the reformation of the Police,” adding that,  “SARS has been identified with human rights violation and abuse of power, which has overshadowed its good work.”

Uhaa, however, pointed out that, “although SARS has contributed tremendously to the fight against violent crimes and criminality, and to the maintenance of law and order, it has operated largely outside the law, earning a bad name for itself, the Nigeria Police Force, and Nigeria at large.

“The operations of any law enforcement must be guided by the law that created it, not by lawlessness, arbitrariness and disregard for human rights, which has guided SARS operations since its creation. And we cannot allow this to continue.

“But, we ask the Federal Government  to take a step further to direct SARS to charge all suspects in their detention camps to court so that suspects can have access to justice and fair trial and this may lead to some gaining freedom, as some of the suspects may be innocent of the alleged offences.”

He further stated that,  “In addition, the Federal Government should direct the IGP and all detaining authorities to declare the number of people in their detention so that Nigeria will know the number of people in their detention facilities.

“For now, we only know the number of people in prison, and this is not right. Suspects in police cells are left at the mercy of their captors and jailers, some of whom treat them like animals.

“Finally, we demand that the current administration  make use of the recommendations made by Federal Government Committees on prison congestion in the past to decongest the prisons.

“The continued detention of people without trial for years in our police cells and prisons violates the basic fundamental human rights to fair trial, equality of all human beings under the law and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and international human rights law.” - The Nation