Nigerian Senate has advised the Federal Government to implement the report on EndSARS and carry out wholistic reforms of the Nigeria Police Force in order to strengthen policing in Nigeria.
Senate’s stand was at the backdrop of reports presented to it by Senator Ibrahim Gobir, Chairman of Senate Joint Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Defence, Police Affairs and Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.
The report revealed that the EndSARS protest in Calabar metropolis which led to the looting and destruction of private and government-owned properties was “largely spontaneous with no identified goals, leaders, sponsors or financiers”.
The Committee said equipping the Police and the procurement of arms would ensure efficient policing in the country.
Part of the recommendations of the 69-page report which was seen on Thursday in Abuja indicate that the violence visited on the Ancient City of Calabar during the EndSARS Protest on 23rd and 24th of October, 2020, was
a free reign for amorphous groups, gangs and criminals, insisting that a proper and well-funded Police would have averted the calamities.
The report pointed out that a victim of EndSARS violence in Calabar and former Senator, Bassey Ewa Henshaw appeared before the Committee and revealed how he narrowly escaped with his family before his house and belongings were vandalised by the protesters.
“Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw, who appeared before the Committee, narrated his ordeal and said it took a miracle to get him, his wife and daughter out from the mob which vandalized its way right into his bedroom.”
The Committee was told by Henshaw that politicians in Cross River State highjacked the EndSARS protesters and used them against perceived political enemies.
He also attributed the violence to the displacement of the people of Bakassi as a result of ceding their homelands to the Republic of Cameroon, a situation that turned some of them into militants.
The former lawmaker said the EndSARs protest was used as an opportunity by the militants to unleash mayhem on the city of Calabar.
He further disclosed that he lost properties to the tune of N9,302,660,000 billion in the protest.
0 Comments