A human rights advocacy group under the auspices of Lygel Youths and Leadership Initiatives has called for the immediate resignation of the Inspector General Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun over his alleged poor handling of the arrest and detention of minors by the police during the July End Bad Governance protest.
Lekan Oladepo, Director Legal Compliance of the group, made the call on Wednesday in Abuja at a news conference, where he condemned the dehumanized treatment of the minors.
The arraignment in Court last week of about 76 of the End Bad Governance protesters some of whom were minors caused national outrage leading to intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who ordered for their release and dropping of treason charges against them.
Oladepo, speaking at the news conference said it was obvious that the way and manner the minors were detained, lumped with the adult detainees is a violent breach of their rights to the human dignity on which the violation cannot be ordinarily compensated.
He argued that the action of the police was in breach of the Child Rights Act and that rights of the minors are “non-negotiable and non-derogable” as far as Section 11 of the Child’s Rights and Section 34 of the Constitution are concerned.
He said: “It is a whole dehumanization of the minors as a class of humanity. To us, it is not enough for the responsible government to strike out the case of the court. It becomes imperative as a healing process to fish out the direct perpetrators of this inhumanity to man and allow them to face the consequence of their action.
“Without fear of contradictions, the Inspector-General of Police should be relieved of his duty as a responsible officer of this ignominious act. After all, he has outlived his statutory tenure in the service. Mr. President and the Police Council must wade in to salvage Nigerians from the messy situation we find ourselves,” he stated.
The group also called for a comprehensive police reform with necessary structures put in place to checkmate excesses of those appointed as IGP.
He added that flowing from the state of things, there was the need to restructure the Police Council beyond mere advisory roles it plays in the appointment of the IGP.
“We as an organization with the object of good leadership and youth development is following this up to ensure that needed reform is brought up to bring sanity to the polity.
“If the IGP is not removed or resigned, we would not hesitate in taking the needed legal process for Mr. President and his Police Council of Advisers to do the needful,” Oladepo said.
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