#ENDSARS: Hamzat, Lagos deputy governor, engages protesters, urges them to be civil
The Government of Lagos State has advised youths protesting alleged brutality by operatives of Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) - an operational outfit in the Police Force - to be civil, as they demonstrated in the state to express their grievances.
Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, on Friday, shelved official engagements and obliged the request to address aggrieved #ENDSARS protesters who besieged the State House in Alausa.
Hamzat said the demonstrators’ outrage and grievance were in order and within their rights as citizens, but the Deputy Governor advised them to eschew violence and not to be unruly as their concerns would be pushed to the police authorities for action. Hamzat, who urged the protesters to leave the roads, said
the State Government would not condone brutality and violation of citizens’ rights by security operatives, pointing out that the position
of the state on the matter had already been communicated to the appropriate quarters by Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu.
The Deputy Governor said the state government would continue to engage the police leadership and the Federal Government to address the issues raised by the citizens and bring about needed change in the police operations.
“The tenet of the police operation is to protect the citizens. Security operatives don’t have the right to trample on the rights of law-abiding citizens, because of their unfamiliar looks, or because they are carrying laptops or iphones. It is wrong for any police officer to expressly accuse or pronounce someone, irrespective of age, guilty because they have dreads or ride luxury vehicles.
“As a government, we support evidence-based investigations and actions driven by intelligence. The procedure of arrest and prosecution must be followed through. We are equally aggrieved like every other law-abiding Nigerian. If a young man or woman who is legitimately doing his or her job is attacked or maimed by police officers for no reason, we will never support that. We condemn police brutality in whatever guise and we will continue to engage their leadership for change.”
Hamzat advised some of the demonstrators, who were chanting “dissolution of the police”, stressing that it would be counterproductive to pull down the entire operation of the police because of the infractions committed by a few bad eggs in the system.
He told the protesters that SARS was a special operational outfit in the police, adding that there were processes to be followed in calling for change in its operations.
Hamzat said: “We fully understand the reasons for your anger but this demonstration must also carried out in line with the law. If we employ violence or destruction to drive home our grievances, we will also be hurting ourselves.