Endsars: Yoruba Youths Calls For Total Reform Of The Nigeria Police – Cautions Protesters Against Infiltrations

The apex leadership of all Yoruba Associations in Nigeria and Diaspora: Yoruba Council of Youths Worldwide (YCYW) affiliated to the Igbimo Apapo Yoruba Lagbaye, Coalition of Southern Group, National Alliance for Development (NADEV), Nigerian Ethnic Nationality Youth Leaders,Forum(NENYLF) and Nigerian Youth Organization (NYO) hereby in strong term call on President Muhammadu Buhari’s led Federal Government, IGP Muhammed Adamu, the Inspector General of Police, alongside Alhaji Musiliu Smith, Chairman, Police Service Commission to jointly consider the urgent need for a thorough reformation and standardization of the Nigeria Police Force as a reliable institution, beyond the usual reading of the fire brigade “Riot Act” on rules of engagements to the men of the Nigerian Police Force attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS), Anti-Kidnapping, Anti-Cultism, Special Tactical Squad ( STS), IRT to mention a few, wherein some of the bad element’s modus operandi and tainted records of gross arbitrariness, extra judicial killings, extortion, bribery and corruption have eclipsed and relegated to huge pride and glory of the Nigerian police irredeemably for a long time now, despite all successive interventions to no avail.

This was contained in a press statement signed and sent to The Drum Online by Aare Oladotun Hassan, Esq. President, YCYW . Oladotun said the most unfortunate gruesome killing of an innocent youth in Delta, whose car was taking away by the SARS Boys, led to the recent public disenchantments, registered displeasures and spiral protestations all over the major towns, cities and states of the country, aftermath of the Oshogbo- Osun State shooting of another innocent youth recently, not forgetting the grave incidents of Iyanapaja Lagos episodes and other countless unleashed woes on most a times innocent youths who are perceived suspects; victims of oppression, subjugation and molestations.

This so called ‘bad’,SARS officers operates a well organized discreet sting operations, under the deceitful guise of stop and search of phones, laptops and invasion of homes and unauthorized interception and interference with victim’s bank account, all in the bid to catch cyber- criminals and internet fraudsters popularly known as ‘Yahoo Yahoo’.

In as much as we detest and condemn all forms of crimes in its entirety, it is urgently pertinent to propose to the IGP to urgently call for a mass strategic reforms and restructuring of all departments and units in all formations of the Nigeria Police Force viz: Divisional Headquarters, Area, State and Zonal Commands and Force Headquarters respectively.

Very importantly to note that this same arm unit of the police under the iconic supercop: DCP Abba Kyari recorded numerous huge successes in the fight against crimes, robbery, kidnappings and terrorism at various times, such as ending the era of the dreaded most wanted kidnap kingpin; Evans, Godogodo, David West and others who are either facing criminal prosecutions or sentenced by the courts.

However, we reiterates the urgent need for provisions of enabling supports and infrastructures, while requesting for robust training and constant retraining through specifically targeted programs for selected officers, in order to be specialist detectives in key areas of crime fighting and investigation.

We laconically use this medium to push for the hosting of a special youth security dialogue summit on the best approach to ending the tainted SARS units to a better people’s oriented and positively reformed policing the will be decentralized into operational units such as: Domestic Affairs and Gender Related Offenses Unit, Cyber-Crime and Advance Free Fraud Unit,Joint Tactical Unit to handle Robbery, Kidnapping, Cultism and Terrorism related offenses, while cases that had both elements of civil and criminal will be investigated under legal and general investigation unit, in order to optimally achieve more wins against criminals, incidentally who are now more sophisticated and technologically advanced beyond the analogue, crudity and opaque style of nipping the bud by the ‘bad’ SARS officers.

Hence, the need to revisit the issues of state and community policing in Nigeria, for security is our collective responsibility, but must be done under strict confidentiality, controlled supervisions and judicious strict compliance.

While we equally wish to caution the protesters to earnestly stop further protestations, in order to unravel real culprits and avoid other irredentists from taking undue advantage of the genuine moral values and clarion call for the holistic development of our security system.

We therefore propose the creation of the “Police and Youth Relation Committee(PYRC) in all formations and units Nationwide”, this shall be a special unit centered on addressing youth related complaints and ensuring succinct synergy in the areas of intelligence and information sharing, as well as promoting mass orientation and education on all cardinal issues of crimes, with a view to letting them know its consequences.