#EndSARS: Falana-led coalition asks Buhari to implement 2018 panel report on police reform

The Alliance for the Survival of COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to implement recommendations of a 2018 presidential panel on SARS reform if he is serious about the nationwide outrage against the police unit.

In a statement signed by Femi Falana, ASCAB chairman, the group charged the president to “walk his talk” on how to tackle the menace of the special anti-robbery squad (SARS).

“Following public outcry in 2018 against the indiscriminate arrests and detention, extortion and extrajudicial killings as well as other horrendous human rights abuse of the Nigerian people perpetrated by the operatives of the SARS, the Federal Government responded by setting up a Presidential Panel of Enquiry to investigate all complaints of human rights abuse,” the statement read.

“It is on record that many Nigerians submitted reports and memoranda and gave clear evidence of police abuse. But that the Federal Government has not implemented the recommendations of the Panel after two years of the submission of its Report.

“In view of the concern recently expressed by both President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo about the allegations of human rights violations routinely committed by the operatives of SARS, the Federal Government must walk its talk by implementing the recommendations of the Presidential Panel on SARS reform.”

The group also said if past events are anything to go by, the recent “knee jerk reactions” by the president as well as Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police (IGP), cannot end the “atrocities” carried out by the police unit.

ASCAB urged Buhari to also make good his promise to reconstitute the governing council of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) without any further delay.

The group also called on state governors to live up to their responsibilities in controlling the police as contained in the Nigerian police council.

“The functions of the council include the organisation, administration and supervision of the Nigeria Police Force. But for some inexplicable reasons, State Governors have allowed the President to single handedly control and supervise the Nigeria Police Force,” it said.

Similarly, ASCAB enjoined Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation (AGF), to expedite action in prosecuting military officers involved in terrorist attacks.