Killings: Experts Want Overhaul Of Security Apparatus

Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRS), Tony Ojukwu, Ekiti State Attorney-General, Olawale Fapolunda and others have given insight into how the Federal Government could address the incessant killings across the country.
Ojukwu, Fapohunda, Law Professor, Agbo Madeki and right activist, Chino Obiagwu suggested a general overhaul of the nation’s security architecture to enable the country address the heightening insecurity in the land.
They spoke in Abuja recently at an event tagged “Civil Societies/NHRS Dialogue on the state of Human Rights in Nigeria” jointly held by NHRC and Human Rights Agenda Network (HRAN).
Ojukwu argued that the reluctance of security agencies to properly situate the identity of perpetrators of these killings was either a lapse or deliberate ploy to shield.
He added: “see what is happening in Benin and Plateau States. I keep telling people that this may be another Boko Haram in another guise because the way these killings were being done, I am surprised that herdsmen can kill people like this.
“I am really surprised that people will just wake up and take joy in just killing human beings. For what? Just for you to have your herds grazed in the bush . “I think there is more than meets the eye but, Boko Haram has been degraded and defeated, they don’t want to look at that direction that this could be another Boko Haram.
“This is because when they scattered them in the North East they, (Boko Haram members) dispersed into small groups and entered communities and that is what we are seeing.
“The clinical way these people are handling Ak47 and killing, it is difficult for me to accept and believe that these are herdsmen”, Ojukwu said.
The NHRC boss said: “I have been one of those who have always said that unless we have state police in this country, it is going to be a problem to protect us. I can give you an instance.
“We have a federal police, yes. You take a man from Katsina and send him to my village he does not understand Igbo language there is not enough he can.
“But look at how the vigilantees work in some villages or even in towns. Every neighbourhood has its own vigilantee, they put a bar and it is working for them.
“Look at what happened in the North East. Part of the problem we had while fighting Boko Haram was that they were brothers living among brothers. The soldiers did not know who was who.
“But when the indigenes themselves formed the civilian JTF, they were able to know those who among them were Boko Haram and they started finishing them (Boko Haram) out”, Ojukwu said.