THE Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, has dissociated the members of its Osun State Chapter of Good Governance, Accountability and Transparency Education from the recent violent protests that rocked the state.
In a release issued by the anti-corruption boss, Debo Adeniran, through the organisation’s Director of Administration and Programmes, Tola Oresanwo, he noted that inasmuch as CACOL believed totally in the need for total reform of the Nigeria Police, the organisation would not subscribe to the use of violence and any act of brigandage.
He said, “We want to use this medium to dissociate the members of our Good Governance, Accountability and Transparency Education (CGATE) Osun State Chapter from the recent violent protests that rocked the State of Osun.
“It is a known fact that over the past few days, there have been renewed calls for the scrapping of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force over reports of brutality and extrajudicial killings. Following the protests, Mohammed Adamu, Inspector-General of Police, had disbanded the SARS unit. President Muhammadu Buhari had also issued a directive, calling for a reform of the police force.
“However, the protests have continued, with activists issuing a five-point demand, which include release of all persons arrested and justice for victims of police brutality. Other demands are “setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reports of police misconduct; psychological evaluation of all disbanded SARS officers before they can be redeployed, and increased police salary so that they can be adequately compensated for protecting lives and property of citizens.”
CACOL said though the government of the day had acceded to these demands, the protesters were still on the streets, while some of them had taken the protests too far by turning it to violence, unruly behaviours and wanton destruction of properties.
It said, “Inasmuch as we believe that the Nigeria Police in its entirety needs total reform in order to improve on its service delivery and to bring their operations at par with international best practices, we do not subscribe to the use of violence and any act of brigandage.
“To this end, we want to state unequivocally that members of our Good Governance, Accountability and Transparency Education (CGATE), Osun State Chapter, are peace loving, law abiding, courteous and good mannered people, hence they cannot and will not involve themselves in any acts that would jettison the peaceful coexistence of the residents of Osun State.
“We also want to use this medium to call on the government at all levels to address other socioeconomic problems the country is facing, especially youth unemployment, as this has given more impetus to the protest coming at a time when the nation and indeed the whole world is just coming out of the lockdown imposed on us by the sudden breakout of COVID-19 Pandemic. Many have lost their source of livelihood while many others are just managing to survive. This may induce violent tendencies in these youth if not addressed.”
