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Tag: security agents

  • Power Abuse: Reps Want Body Cameras for Security Agents

    Power Abuse: Reps Want Body Cameras for Security Agents

    The House of Representatives has called on the Federal Government to provide body cameras to be attached to officers and men of security agencies in Nigeria and create situation rooms across the country to monitor their activities.

    The body cameras, the House argued, will help checkmate cases of abuse of power and human rights.

    The House urged the government at all levels to provide body cameras for all security operatives including Nigeria Customs Service on duty across the country.

    Furthermore, the House mandated its Committees on Police Affairs; Army; and National Security and Intelligence to ensure compliance with the resolution.

    The resolution was based on a motion moved at the plenary on Thursday by a member, Chinedu Martins, titled ‘Need to Provide Body-Worn Cameras for Security Operatives in the Country and Create a Situation Room.’

    Moving the motion, Martins noted that the security of lives and properties of the citizens is a primary responsibility of the government.

    According to him, security agencies have been exploring solutions to mitigate the growing insecurity in the country, especially considering the lack of adherence to rules of engagement on the part of security operatives on duty.

    The lawmaker also noted that a body camera is a wearable audio-visual or photographic system that integrates with in-car video and used to record events involving law enforcement officers in order to improve transparency and accountability of law enforcement agencies.

    Martins said, “The House is concerned about allegations of harassment, extortion, and extrajudicial killings of citizens by security operatives, which often results in reprisals and uprising by the citizens.

    “The House is convinced that security operatives, who often experience litigious scrutiny over their conduct in the discharge of their duties, ought to wear body cameras in order to have picture and video evidence of their activities;

    “The House is cognisant that the body cameras will keep the security operatives in check, considering the massive allegations of human rights violation by security operatives and lack of evidence to indict them.

    “The House is also cognisant that the introduction of body cameras will not only douse tension and promote trust and professionalism among the security agencies but will also institutionalise the rules of engagement to foster a harmonious relationship between security operatives and the citizenry.”

  • Nigerian security agents, not ESN, planting bombs in Igboland – IPOB

    Nigerian security agents, not ESN, planting bombs in Igboland – IPOB

    The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Wednesday, accused Nigerian security agents of planting Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, across the Southeast.

    Spokesman of IPOB, Emma Powerful, claimed that the IEDs were planted to implicate its members and militia arm, the Eastern Security Network, ESN.

    Powerful was reacting to a statement by the Nigerian Army and Police that IPOB and ESN planted IEDs in Awo-Mmamma, Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State.

    In a statement he signed, Powerful said the claim by the Army and police that they thwarted IPOB and ESN attacks using IEDs were false because the explosives are not from the separatist group.

    According to Powerful: “The attention of the global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by our great liberator and prophet, Mazi Nnamdi KANU, has been drawn to the fallacious and laughable, statement from the Nigeria Army and Police, claiming that IPOB/ESN operatives planted IED in Awo-Mmamma and its nearby community, Mgbidi in Oru East of Imo State.

    “The purported statement and false propaganda that troops thwarted IPOB/ESN attacks on two Imo communities and uncovered IEDs should be disregarded. This is another desperate but futile attempt by the Nigerian security agencies to implicate IPOB and ESN operatives. It, however, did not come to us as a surprise because it has been their stock in trade. This is another blatant falsehood.

    “For the records, IPOB and ESN operatives never planted, and have no plans to plant IEDs in any part of Biafra land. ESN since its inauguration by our leader Mazi Nnamdi KANU in December last year has never engaged in any terrorist activity. Its mandate has not changed: protection of our ancestral land against Fulani herdsmen and bandits attacks.

    “It’s only ridiculous for the security agencies to try to link IPOB or ESN with the planting of IEDs, when in fact Nigerians know who those who plant IEDs are. Planting explosives is the signature tune of the Fulani terrorists and bandits.

    “Assuming but not in any way admitting this idiotic trash, if we should resort to the planting of IEDs, who do we want to kill? What do we want to achieve? How can we be stupid to begin to plant bombs that will kill our people whom we are staking our lives daily to protect and defend against Fulani terrorists?

    “To further punctuate their lies, how come these shameless liars claiming to be security agents are only swift in discovering IEDs purportedly planted by IPOB and ESN but fail to detect the same IEDs planted by Fulani bandits and terrorists which have claimed thousands of lives in the North including security operatives themselves although mainly from Southern Nigeria? It is now clear that these terrorists in military and police uniforms are working in cahoot with their rag-tag counterparts in the forests to achieve the same agenda. While they keep betraying Southern troops serving in the North, these jihadists and terrorists in security uniforms deployed to Biafra land are now busy planting IEDs in their desperation to implicate IPOB and ESN.”

  • FENRAD demands end to extortion by security agents

    FENRAD demands end to extortion by security agents

    By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu

    Amid the end of SARS and police brutality protests raging across the country, Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD) has demanded an end to all forms of extortion by security agents especially in the South East zone.
    The group said that the proliferation of check points in the zone with particular reference to Abia State by both the police and army has subjected road users, especially motorists to untold hardship.
    A statement endorsed by the group’s Executive Director, Comrade Nnanna Nelson Nwafor reads:” The current agitations to end the impunity by the recently disbanded police unit, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) is long over due.
    “Our position is that since we have have risen to the occasion to address abuses meted on Nigerians by security agents, we believe it should be holistic.
    “FENRAD is worried over  the operations of our security agents, and this is the high extortion of Nigerians induced by our security agents on our highways”. 
    FENRAD further explained that these extortions are not only perpetrated by the police but soldiers who have abandoned their primary responsibility of defending the nation against external aggression but have converted our major highways to toll collection points.
    According to the group, the soldiers mount young men who serve as collection agents few meters from their check points to collect toll for them. 
    “On our Spot Assessment investigation in some checkpoints in Abia state which include Owerrinta, Umuikaa, Ntigha. and Akara checkpoints we discovered high extortion of road users by security agents manning these checkpoints”.
    The group explained that the extortion activities result to traffic challenges as these security agents harass and intimate road users on refusal to part with some toll. 
    FENRAD is demanding that the hierarchies of these security agencies end this ugly trend lest it snowballs to another round of protests tagged “#EndExtortionsbysecurityagencies
    The group is also worries that the extortion is extended to tricycle operators in Aba by policemen, adding that if all entreaties to end this ugly trend fails, it will not hesitate to deploy legal actions to address it.