Falana, Odumakin urges recruitment of more policemen

A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has appealed to the Federal Government to recruit more policemen, train and equip them adequately to be able to confront the current security challenges.

Falana stated this yesterday at an interactive seminar organised by the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) and the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squared (FSARS) held at the Ogun FSARS Headquarters in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Falana, in his lecture titled “FSARS Between Combating Crime and Protection of Human Rights,” ascribed the worrisome security situation in the country to shortage of policemen.

He also lamented poor funding of the police in the country, saying that policemen that are not well paid cannot discharge their duties effectively to the society.

His words: “I want to say that we are under-policed in this country and that is the problem. We are short of policemen in this country. We need nothing less that one million policemen and women, well-equipped and well-funded.

“My position is that we are not to end SARS. What we must do is to force the government to reform SARS sufficiently to the extent that men and women in the force will respect the rights of the people.”

In a related vein, the state’s Commissioner for Police, Ahmed Illiyasu, urged the policemen present at the seminar to ensure strict compliance with the rule of law and also be committed to the discharge of their duties.

He also charged them to respect fundamental human rights law and say no to brutality and asking for money to bail a suspect.

Another human rights lawyer, Yinka Odumakin, said: “Where the police are absent, citizens are not safe and the society is prone to danger.”

dumakin, therefore, said the country needed more policemen to be able to provide adequate security.