Gbajabiamila decries alleged police harassment, extra-judicial killings in Ogun

• Gov visits family of deceased footballer, promises justice
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has decried the alleged harrasment and extra-judicial killings in Sagamu, Ogun State.

Addressing a public hearing on repositioning the police force for enhanced service delivery in Abuja yesterday, he said it was “unfortunate and entirely unacceptable that the relationship between the police and many communities is now defined by fear, mutual antagonism and an absolute loss of faith in the ability of the police to protect and to serve.”

Gbajabiamila regretted that the police, charged with the responsibility of protecting lives and property, “are not living up to the expectation of the citizenry.”

He identified “failures in the recruitment process and training, remuneration and welfare” as reasons for the “highhandedness and unruly conduct by a section of police officers in the country.”

He noted: “In the last few days, we have all witnessed as the city of Sagamu in Ogun State has been unsettled by an orgy of violence resulting from the extra-judicial killing of a young footballer by officers of the Nigeria Police Force. Citizens who gathered to protest this killing were soon themselves at the receiving end of police bullets.”

In the same vein, Governor Dapo Abiodun yesterday pledged to use every instrument available to him to unearth the circumstances surrounding the killing and crisis that engulfed the town in wake of the gruesome mowing of the soccer player, Tiamiyu Kazeem, since Saturday.

The governor, who spoke when he paid a condolence visit to the deceased’s family in Sagamu, vowed: “We will use every means possible not only to ensure that justice is served, but that it is seen to have been served.”

He added: We will work to ensure that this will be the last of such avoidable deaths in the hands of security officers in our state.”