Following the Nigeria Police Force rebuttal of the Amnesty International Report, “Bloody August: Nigeria Government’s Violent Crackdown on #EndBadGovernance Protests,” the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre has called for an independent body to investigate to ferret out the truth.
The Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma said: “In all cases where the police dispute reports and allegations of violations against them by any organization, it would require an independent body to review the reports and allegations against the police and police’s response to the allegations to arrive at the truth.
“In this regard, the National Human Rights Commission and/or relevant committees of the Senate or House of Representatives should step in to conduct thorough, impartial, and credible investigations to ascertain the truth and make appropriate recommendations.”
Nwanguma, who described the NPF rebuttal as interesting, added: “We wish that the Nigeria Police would always respond in this way to all allegations of human rights violations levelled against them. Would they also respond to the unresolved organ harvesting allegations against some police officers of the Anambra State RRS (formerly SARS Awkuzu) into which the Inspector-General of Police had also ordered an investigation?
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“Since the police have exercised their right to rebut Amnesty International’s claims against their operatives, the option would not be to accept hook, line, and sinker, the police’s contrary claims.
“For example, the police in their rebuttal, referred to ‘evidence’ that they have, which contradicts AI’s claims, but they did not disclose the ‘evidence’ for an independent assessment and verification. We do hope that the NHRC, the Senate, and HoR, all of which have oversight powers over the police should step in to unravel the truth.”
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