The Senate on Wednesday mandated its Committees on Judiciary, Human Rights and Police Affairs to investigate alleged extrajudicial executions by officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in some parts of the country.
The committees are also to investigate Human Rights abuses by Security Agencies in the country and make recommendations.
The resolutions of the Senate followed the adoption of a motion by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (APC-Lagos) on the urgency to check the brutality meted on Nigerians by security officials, especially SARS.
Tinubu, who brought her motion under matters of urgent public importance, having cited order 42 and 52 of Senate rules, said the injustice by SARS were in flagrant disregard of laws governing all Nigerians.
She said the constitution provided for the right of every Nigerian, noting that the 1999 constitution, Chapter 4 provides for right to life.
According to her, there were allegations of abuses of human rights by some officers of security agencies.
She said Kolade Johnson was killed by SARS on April 3, while watching a football match at a viewing center in Lagos.
“In August 2019, a video surfaced online of two policemen shooting two suspected phone pips.”
Tinubu said it was a concern that Nigerian youths could no longer move freely for fear of being accused of being Yahoo boys or fraudsters because of wearing nice cloths, riding good cars, owning laptop, nice phones and spotting certain hair styles.
“Senate is concerned with more youths doing software developments and other ICT works, profiling by policemen has become a major problem,” she said.
She said despite assurances by the Inspector-General of Police in 2015 and 2017 that SARS would be reformed, innocent Nigerians are still being extorted, harassed and executed by some officials of SARS on daily basis.
She added: “Nigerians are afraid of reporting occurrence of crime to police because of being detained or being made to part with some money by the police or been accused of the same crime they have come to report.”
The Senate further in its resolutions urged the various security agencies to establish hotlines to enable Nigerians report abuses by their officers.
It also urged the various security agencies to establish a special bureau unit that will monitor the conduct of its officers, arrest and charge the erring ones.
It also mandated the Committee on Police Affairs to organise a stakeholders meeting to investigate the implementation of the Nigerian Police Trust Fund Act 2019.
The Senate also commended the I-G for his swift response and urged him to review the objectives behind the establishment of tactical squads.
The Senate noted that this was to permanently restrict SARS from interfering in the daily affairs of Nigerians.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, in his remark called for proper investigation by the committees on the abuse of human rights and alleged extrajudicial executions of some Nigerians.
Lawan said those found to have been involved in the act should be made to face the law accordingly.
He, however, said it was not the best to totally scrap SARS as the unit has assisted in the fight against crime in the country, noting that there were also good officials there.
He said the rule of law should be employed in the activities of SARS.