The House of Representatives has unveiled plans designed to curb police brutality and other excesses of the force.
Unveiling the plan during plenary on Wednesday, the House Speaker, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila said the lawmakers would work with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and Nigerians of good conscience in drafting a new legislation for the establishment of an accountability system that is independent of the police force.
According to him, the new legislation will ensure that erring members of the Police Force are held accountable for their conduct as well as impose civil and criminal liability for violations of the Police Code.
The legislation would also compel the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to take responsibility for failures of training and discipline that lead to such violations.
It would be recalled that there have been renewed calls and protest for the scraping of a tactical unit of the police force known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The protests followed series of allegations of harassment by officers, a development which Gbajabiamila described as “betraying of trust and wreaking of unquantifiable damage on the already frayed fabric of our society”.
“We have long expected the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to police itself, It is now abundantly clear that for the benefit of a functioning system of policing in Nigeria, parliament has to step in to introduce an independent, fair and practical approach to ensure that those to whom we grant the authority to act in the name of the state, are held to the highest standards of professional conduct,” he added.
