Okechukwu Nwanguma, National Coordinator of Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN), has left the organisation.
He has floated another not-for-profit organisation called Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) as executive director.
Nwaguma announced his exit from NOPRIN on Monday even as he said he will still retain his board membership of the police accountability group.
In a statement on July 1, 2019, Nwanguma said: “Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre is a not-for-profit non-governmental human rights advocacy organisation established in 2018 with commitment to promoting law enforcement accountability, transparent and responsible policing, and respect for human rights and rule of law.
“RULAAC carries out its mandate through monitoring, research, investigation, documenting, publicising and publication, campaign and advocacy, networking, partnership and engagement with local and international non-government and intergovernmental organizations and relevant government institutions. The organisation also offers advisory consultancy services on police reform issues to local and international partners.”
RULAAC has also began in earnest to seek for justice for those who have cases with the police and other security agencies.
Nwaguma wrote: “On Monday July 2, 2019 the attention of RULAAC was drawn to a video in circulation showing a mob attacking four persons- one man and three women- who were accused of being members of ‘a gang of one chance criminals’ operating at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. There are unverified claims that ‘they were apprehended by SARS officers and policemen during one of their operations and stripped naked on the street…’ RULAAC is yet unable to confirm this claim as the video didn’t reveal the presence of any uniformed police officer in the crowd. Efforts to confirm the time and location of the incident from the police have not yielded any result yet.
“The accused persons were seen in the video surrounded by a mob that beat, kicked and flogged them with various objects. One of the men in the mob was seen with a belt that resembles that of security agents. The accused persons were forced to lie on their back with the three women stripped bare while the only man among the alleged gang was left with his jean trousers on.
“One of the women was heard pleading, saying she only entered the vehicle as a passenger and not part of the gang.
“While ‘One chance’ has been a major menace in parts of Abuja targeting mainly women whose handbags, cash, mobile phones and other valuable items are often snatched at gun point by the criminals who operate in both painted and unpainted cars disguised as taxi, the resort to mob action against suspects is not a lawful or civilised response to the menace. It is tending to fight crime with crime. The consequences of citizens taking laws into their own hands by resorting to mob action include the fact that often, innocent people are victimised and sometimes, as in the case of the Aluu 4, mob action may also result to the murder of innocent people. Even if the actual criminals were to be apprehended by citizens while in the act, the lawful step to take is to hand them over to the police for investigation and prosecution.
“But of even more serious concern to RULAAC is the discriminatory treatment meted to accused persons based on gender. In this case under reference, while the mob stripped the three accused female naked, they left the male accused member of the alleged gang with his trousers on.
“This is not an isolated case. There is a growing and disturbing tendency by both law enforcement agents and citizens to subject women accused of crime to sexual abuse and violence, clearly targeting them for being women. This was clearly manifest during the Abuja raids of Night Clubs and other places during which law enforcement agents, acting based on similar clear gender discrimination, arrested only women found at the Night clubs, paraded them naked and sexually abused and exploited them. This predatory approach to law enforcement is prevalent and has been documented many times not only in Abuja, but also in other parts of the country, including Akwa Ibom and Lagos recently.
“It is despicable and offensive to both morality and Nigerian laws. Those responsible, whether they are law enforcement agents or ordinary citizens, should be made to face the legal consequences of their depraved and unlawful actions. Women must be protected from gender discriminatory practices and sexual abuse and violence.
“A basic part of the training for law enforcement agents should be the provision in the Nigerian Constitution and other regional and international human rights legislation which Nigeria subscribes to stipulating that any person accused of crime shall be entitled to be presumed innocent until s/he has been proved guilty after a fair trial in a court of competent jurisdiction. This is a fundamental due process guarantee against arbitrary or abusive exercise of law enforcement powers and to protect innocent persons from being punished or made to suffer unjustly.”
RULAAC specifally called the IGP to:
1. Order a prompt, impartial and exhaustive investigation with a view to unravelling those behind the recent mob action and the inhuman and degrading treatment of the accused ‘one chance criminals’ in the FCT; they should be brought to account;
2. Guarantee protection for women and order an end to the gender based discriminatory approach to law enforcement and treatment of women by citizens resulting to violence against women by both the police and other citizens
3. Take special measures to track, apprehend and deal with the menace of ‘One Chance’ criminals terrorising Abuja residents, especially targeting women.