Media organizations and practitioners across the country have been urged to create awareness in their news reportage and programmes on the Police Act 2020 and regulations as well as issues of human rights violations in order to reduce high incidences of abuse.
The call was made during a town hall meeting organised for media practitioners in Maiduguri the Borno state capital, organised by the rule of law and empowerment initiative also known as Partners West Africa Nigeria (PWAN) on Human Rights, the Police Act 2020 and regulations.
Speaking at the meeting, the Programme Officer of PWAN, Zainab Waziri advocated massive enlightenment campaigns on the act and human rights in order to create awareness and reduce fractions.
Waziri stressed the need for massive enlightenment of the act to strengthen Police Community relationships for them to earn public trust.
The meeting which was organized by the Borno sub-office of PWAN drew participants from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states.
Waziri said PWAN is a gender-sensitised non-governmental organization established to enhance citizens’ participation as well as improve security in governance in Nigeria and West Africa as a whole.
According to her “The NGO has established a strategic and adaptive management structure with an emphasis on field presence, accountability, and cost efficiency.”
She further said the aim of organizing the workshop was to enable the participants to understand the act and enlighten the public about the Police Act 2020 as the NGO is carrying out its activities in the areas of justice, security reform, gender mainstreaming, peacebuilding and conflict resolution among others since 2016.
In a presentation titled, Promoting Awareness of the Nigeria Police Acts: the Role of the Media, a consultant with the NGO Dr Kelechi Akubueze insisted that to check human rights abuses in the country, media organisations ought to be proactive in creating public awareness to put security agents on their toes to be more familiar with the police act 2020.
He stressed that “I believe this will be achieved through strategic engagements with critical stakeholders like the criminal justice sector, collaborative advocacy, capacity building and encouraging synergy through inter-agency coordination mechanisms.”
Kelechi Akubueze enjoined the participants to include in their daily reportage issues about the police act for people to know their fundamental human rights and for the Police to carry out their duties without violations of their rights.
In their various contributions, some of the participants pledged to use their organisations to create awareness so that the target audience would participate actively in fostering community security and peaceful coexistence for people to tolerate one another devoid of ethno-religious perspectives.
PWAN which is an Abuja-based NGO is working to ensure adherence to the Rule of Law and Empowerment Initiative, enhance citizens’ participation and improve security governance in Nigeria and West Africa.
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