The #RevolurionNow convener said, "Nigeria Police Force have no need walking around with high-calibre assault weapons to police Nigeria’s streets."
The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has said that rather than being leaders and defenders of the people, Nigerian leaders are at war with Nigerians.
During a radio interview posted on Wednesday, Sowore said this is obvious considering the level at which Nigerian leaders surround themselves and move around with policemen equipped with high-calibre assault weapons.
The #RevolurionNow convener said, "Nigeria Police Force have no need walking around with high-calibre assault weapons to police Nigeria’s streets."
According to him, "It is as if Nigeria is at war with ordinary citizens,” adding that it is “essentially that Nigerian leaders are at war with Nigerians for no reason".
The human rights activist vowed that if elected the next Nigerian president this year, he will take such high-calibre assault weapons away from police officers on the streets.
He asked why policemen carry AK-47s around when the country is not at war, insisting that they can use concealed weapons or may not even need weapons in some cases.
"If I'm the president of Nigeria, I will remove checking particulars from the work of policemen. There are too many things to do for the police rather than checking for papers.
"That could be done by the road safety or the local governments. Let the people who issue the particulars determine who has a proper particular.
"I mean, there is a Lagos licensing authority for vehicles. Let it be their job to stop you occasionally with their own local officials and check if your particulars are complete, but these days of computerisation, you don't even need to approach anybody to know that their particulars have expired.
"What you need to do is to point a scanner behind their back at a traffic spot without them knowing it and implement whatever sanction for it.
"I don't understand why we have to go to a level where policemen are checking papers, asking for fire extinguishers, asking whether your tyre is less. That is complete rubbish policing and it came from rubbish leadership which must be phased out in this country. This is 2023 and we should not be doing what we did in 2022 and be happy about it."