A coalition of 49 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has launched an online portal to document and track human rights abuses by the Nigerian police.
The coalition Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) and Connected Development [CODE], a non government organization whose mission is to empower marginalized communities, said unlawful police detentions are escalating and police extortion of citizens had become alarming.
Oludotun Babayemi, the co-founder of CODE during the unveiling of the platform stated:
“Policemonitor.ng is an open platform that will document several human right abuses of the Nigeria Police of Nigerian citizens,, which will also be used in engaging the Nigeria Police and the judiciary to foster social justice for the citizens.
The portal comes in addition to the Nigeria Police complaint response unit (CRU), which has been deemed not as efficient as we hoped it would be.
We are not even sure that it will survive in this new dispensation.”
CRU online portal is reported to have received and processed 1,054 complaints nationwide, and only 20 police officers got sanctioned.
Policemonitor.ng is expected to document and track reports of arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention, extortion, police brutality, torture, extrajudicial killings, and other acts of police abuse and police misconduct.
The public can report on the platform by sending an SMS or Whatsapp Message to 0708-000-4730.