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Inspector-General Egbetokun Ruined Nigerian Police, Allowed It To Be Used By Special Interests In Return For His Illegal Tenure Extension – Sowore

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December 24, 2024

Sowore, former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 General Elections, said that the IGP surrendered the police to vested interests in return for getting an illegal tenure extension that has ruined policing in Nigeria.

Human rights activist and convener of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore, has berated the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, accusing him of surrendering the Nigeria Police Force to special interests in the country to freely persecute their adversaries.

Sowore, former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 General Elections, said that the IGP surrendered the police to vested interests in return for getting an illegal tenure extension that has ruined policing in Nigeria.

Sowore, who said this on Monday in a post on his social media account listed the atrocities under Egbetokun's leadership to include “police abuse; corruption; torture; bribery; extortion; brutality; excessive use of force; extra-judical murdering; legal misconduct, and compromise as Egbetokun’s legacies.”

He also listed “police connivance; illegal arrest and detention; police baiting (using innocent relatives abducted at gunpoint to trap suspects), and police illegal use of wiretapping (most Nigerians are not aware of this yet).”

Sowore added, “These are the legacies of the current IG of @PoliceNG, Kayode Egbetokun.

“These egregious policing practices have become more notoriously pronounced, prevalent, and pervasive since the current IGP came on board as he surrendered the @policeng to special interests to freely persecute their adversaries in return for getting an illegal tenure extension that has ruined policing in Nigeria today.”

SaharaReporters had reported several human rights abuses, illegal arrests and detention of human and civic rights activists, musicians and other Nigerians by the police under Egbetokun's watch in the recent time. 

SaharaReporters had reported that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) strongly condemned the brutal assault on lawyer Ernest Chukwuemeka Okpaga by police officers at the Nigeria Police Force National Cyber Crime Centre in Abuja.

 

NBA in a statement last week jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary of its National Litigation Committee, Ama Etuwewe, SAN and Isah Abubakar Aliyu respectively had demanded accountability from the police personnel involved.

 

According to the statement, the incident occurred on December 19, 2024, while Okpaga was representing his client and female activist, Abiodun Olamide Thomas, who was detained for a week without medical attention despite her deteriorating health.

 

SaharaReporters reported last Thursday that the detained female human rights activist, Olamide Thomas, collapsed at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) in Abuja due to health complications.

 

Abiodun, who suffers from asthma and peptic ulcer, had been bleeding since last Monday, SaharaReporters had reported.