Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, flayed the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) over monetary gifts presented to families of deceased police officers and those injured in the line of duty.
 
The group maintained that the officers could have been saved and still be alive if the police had done the needful. HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, described the action of the force as “medicine after death,” saying rather than presenting money to grieving families of police officers, the police authorities should invest in efficient training of their personnel, provide life-saving equipment and ammunition, housing, social welfare and good salaries that would motivate the officers to give their all.
   
The group said many police officers would not have died if they were fully equipped with necessary tools and are well motivated.
 
In January this year, the then Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, presented a cheque of N13 billion to families of police officers killed and critically injured while on duty between 2012 and 2020.
   
A total of 6,128 families of deceased personnel and injured police officers were expected to benefit from the money.
     
Also, in July 2023, the Acting IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, presented cheques worth N535.6 million to 68 families of officers who lost their lives in the line of duty and those who suffered permanent deformities in the course of discharging their duties.

But Onwubiko argued that the humongous benefits paid to families of deceased police operatives demonstrate inefficiency and ineffectiveness in policing strategies in Nigeria.
   
“It also showed the lack of adequate life-saving equipment, infrastructure, power and efficient policing system in Nigeria. The police must strengthen their training components and intelligence gathering to reduce the high costs paid by the government for operatives killed in the line of duty.

“The police also need an holistic reform to eradicate extra-judicial execution of suspects in police custody, which some observers believe is the genesis of the hate motivated attacks targeting police operatives and strategic policing infrastructures in Nigeria, especially in the Southeast,” he said.
   
Besides, the organisation maintained that constitutional amendment is vital to creating regional and state police that would enhance community policing, guarantee stability and return of peace.