FG urged to design code of operations template for security agencies

The Federal Government has been enjoined to bring permanent sanity to the activities of security agencies through a fresh code of operations that will incorporate respect for human rights, compliance with court orders and submission to criminal procedure.

This is in view of recent events and sustained outcry against the activities of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the Directorate of State Service (DSS) which culminated in the sacking of the Mr Lawal Daura, the director general of DSS.

A People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, who commended Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for sacking Mr Daura and instructing the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris to overhaul SARS, however, stated that the action has exposed the rots in Nigeria’s security agencies.

Onuesoke, in a statement made available to TribuneOnline in Warri, Delta State on Saturday, said Osinbajo’s action was long overdue.

He disclosed that the activities of DSS and SARS had got to a stage that Nigerians had begun to wonder if they were established to protect the citizenry or to make life more difficult for them.

He recounted how officers of both agencies became so power drunk by exhibiting excessive recklessness, brutality, uncivilized and unruly behaviour in dealing with members of the public.

Onuesoke described the security personnel as having no regard for human rights with extortion as their stock-in-trade.

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The Delta PDP chieftain added that their esprit de corps manifested well when any one of them got exposed for illegal activities.

“For instance, the way and manner the police barricaded the homes of both Senate President and his Deputy or the way SARS invaded the premises of the Senate is a sign that Nigeria security agencies do not have respect for our democratic principles.

“If they can handle such people in such manner or invade the Senate with ignominy, it is a revelation that the common man in the street has been suffering in silence in their hands.

“In Nigeria, all uniform officers are always overreaching themselves. It is a country where uniform is an express licence for lawlessness,” he averred.

Onuesoke further disclosed that there had been a series of complaints on how  SARS, DSS or other security agencies’ violation of human rights was becoming unbearable.

He recollected that in a report published on September 21, 2016, the Amnesty International detailed how these operatives systematically tortured detainees to extract confessions and obtain lucrative bribes from them.

He added that the torture methods they employed included hanging, starvation, beatings, shootings and mock executions.

He, therefore, urged the FG to initiate a new code of operation for the two security agencies as a mark that it is actually ready to do what is right.