The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Hashimu Argungu said police operatives should not use insurgency and Biafra agitation as excuses for corruption and extortion in the South-East states.
Argungu gave the warning at the South-East Stakeholders Summit on Peace and Security organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in partnership with South-East Civil Society Organisations in Enugu on Friday.
NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe has expressed concern over the attitude of the federal government on growing insurgency in the South-East states.
Represented by Ikechukwu Ani, the public relations officer of PSC, Argungu said the commission was aware of insecurity fuelled by Biafra agitators in the region, but warned that it must not be an excuse for corruption and extortion.
“The Commission is very much interested in what is happening here today, especially as it affects the entire South-East. We are no more comfortable with the abuse of office by some security personnel detailed to provide security across this region.
“We understand that there is a high-level of insecurity in the zone, especially with the ceaseless and senseless attacks from brainwashed youths from this zone masquerading as freedom fighters and killing their brothers and sisters. But that obviously should not and never be an excuse to relapse into corruption by the security Agencies.
“The Commission has continued to observe the corruption and extortion that dots all the roads traversing this region by virtually all the security operatives who are supposed to safeguard the roads and restore unhindered movement of people, goods and services.
“The road blocks mounted by these security agencies have unfortunately turned into toll gates where road users are forced under gunpoint to part with money.
“The Commission is also aware of the serious human rights violations by some misguided police officers in the South-East, who against the Commission’s several warnings to stay away from civil matters, have continued to swim in it because of the financial attraction”.
Argungu warned that the Commission will no longer tolerate this serious act of indiscipline and human right abuses, and will henceforth not hesitate to put its disciplinary processes in motion to see to the dismissal of such errant Officers.
On his part, NBA President, Mazi Osigwe expressed concern over what he described as the deliberate refusal of the federal government to confront the rising cases of insecurity South-East states.
He said the federal government was yet to address insecurity in the zone even as it was spreading.
Osigwe said, “The violence we see in the South-East is man-made and has made it difficult for people to live their lives normally. Federal government appears to have abandoned the South-East as there is no sustained effort to address the issue. I just wonder why there is no deliberate effort to address it.
“Many Igbo people can’t go to their villages, and we have a very big problem. The economy of the South-East is dying as people are scared of investing”, Osigwe said.
For his part, human rights lawyer, Prof Chidi Odinkalu who was the keynote speaker on the topic: “Fostering lasting peace and security: Collaborative approaches to address insecurity and human rights violations in the South-East,” identified cultism, disregard for policing, porous borders, lack of coordination among South-East office holders, biased judiciary, hard drugs, local gun running, and appropriation of Igbo identity as some of the fuelling factors of insurgency in the zone.
