The National Coalition Against Mass Killings, Extra-Judicial Killings, Mob Actions, and Impunity (NCAMKI) has called for an immediate suspension of the ongoing state police process until comprehensive nationwide public consultations are conducted to guarantee democratic safeguards.

It noted that no democratic society should establish a powerful policing structure without first consulting the people.

According to the coalition, a police structure without accountability is dangerous to ordinary people, opposition voices, vulnerable communities, workers, youths, and minorities.

The coalition, in a statement from its secretariat signed by Tunde Agunbiade, mentioned a recent disturbing video, yet to be independently verified, allegedly showing operatives linked to a security outfit in Anambra State using pestles and brutal force to break the legs of citizens.

According to the coalition, “If verified, such acts are not law enforcement. They are barbaric, degrading, unconstitutional, and a direct assault on human dignity and the rule of law. No democratic society can normalise torture, jungle justice, or extrajudicial punishment under any guise of security enforcement.

“This is why the debate on state police cannot continue without democratic safeguards.

“Before any expansion of state policing powers, Nigerians must demand public hearings in all states, clear human rights safeguards, independent civilian oversight bodies, compulsory body cameras and documentation, public complaint and accountability mechanisms, criminal liability for torture and abuse, judicial oversight and transparency, protection against political abuse of security outfits, training rooted in human rights and the rule of law, and immediate investigation of all allegations of torture,” it added.

NCAMKI emphasised that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees the right to the dignity of the human person, freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, fair hearing, and due process under the law, stressing that silence in the face of brutality only empowers impunity, and that security must never be used as an excuse for cruelty.

It emphasised that no governor, state actor, or security outfit has the constitutional power to maim citizens, and that security must never be used as an excuse for cruelty.

“Today it may be ‘suspected criminals’. Tomorrow, it may be activists, journalists, opposition voices, protesters, workers, students, or ordinary people living in poverty,” NCAMKI added.

The coalition called on civil society organisations, human rights defenders, labour unions, students, professional bodies, community leaders, and all democratic forces to rise and demand accountability, safeguards, and public hearings now before state police structures become instruments of fear and repression.

“People who do not resist injustice early may later lose the power to resist it at all. Nigeria deserves security with justice, accountability, and democratic safeguards. The ongoing push for state police must not continue without nationwide public hearings, broad democratic consultation, independent civilian oversight, strong constitutional safeguards, transparent accountability mechanisms, and genuine people’s participation.

“History has shown that unchecked policing powers can easily be abused against ordinary citizens, political opponents, journalists, activists, workers, youths, minorities, and vulnerable communities,” it concluded.