Popular Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN) has made some powerful revelations about a certain former southwestern Governor who had a killer squad.
This occurred during a speech at a Memorial Public Lecture that held in honour of late Prof. Olumuyiwa Awe at the University of Ibadan.
Mr Falana went on to reveal that the former Governor in question was responsible for the murder of “a World Bank expert”.
According to him, the reason many citizens oppose the creation of state police is for the fear that they’ll be used as tools by politicians.
“Many citizens are opposed to the creation of state police for the fear that it may be used to haunt political opponents of some state governors. I know a state governor in the South-West who once had a killer squad headed by his Chief Security Officer, a police officer,” Mr Falana said.
“One of the unarmed citizens mowed down by the illegal squad was a World Bank expert. All efforts to prosecute the suspects, who were indicted in several killings of unarmed citizens by the squad, have been frustrated by the state government.
He suggested the employment of democracy in the running of state police so as to avoid abuse of power.
“To avoid a situation whereby abuse of police powers is decentralized any security service established by state governments should be democratically controlled,” he said.
Finally, he stressed that it is important for policemen to be locals of where they serve. That way, it’ll be easier for them to record the kind of success the Civilian Joint Task Force has so far recorded in the fight against Boko Haram in Borno.
“Every police officer should operate in their community, speak the local language and mix freely with the people,” he added.
