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#EndSARS: NPF files suit to bar judicial panels from probing police brutality
By Emmanuel Awosika
The Nigeria Police Force on Thursday filed a suit at Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to stop judicial panels set up by state governments to investigate cases of police brutality involving operatives of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The suit, filed by counsel to the NPF, Mr. O. M. Atoyebi, argued that state governments had no authority to probe activities of the police.
The police force also prayed the court to bar the state Attorney-Generals in all states of the federation and their respective judicial panels to proceed with the investigation of police brutality cases.
According to the police, the probes were in violation of “the provisions of Section 241 (1)(2) (a) and Item 45, Part 1, First schedule, 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and Section 21 of the Tribunals of Inquiry Act, Cap.T21, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
The police further stated that only the Federal Government had jurisdiction to control it and conduct investigations into its activities.
It was gathered that the case, earlier scheduled for December 3, had been adjourned to December 18 following the failure of the court to sit.
State Governors, including Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, had established judicial panels of inquiry to probe allegations of brutality levelled against members of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests.
