The National Youth Council of Nigeria(Delta state Chapter) has observed with great dismay the renewed police brutality against youths within Delta state. It would be recalled that the just concluded #EndSARS protest across the country, which metamorphosed into a national unrest, was birthed as a result of misconstrued police brutality against a youth in the state. It is needed to understand that the volatility of Delta state – especially where it involves intimidating and oppressing peaceful unarmed youngsters – cannot be brushed aside. Worse still, verifiable acts of arbitrary arrests with the intent to extort.
With youths within Delta state going against all odds to eke out a living in an economy that nosedives for the worse daily, the men of the Nigerian Police force have taken it as a duty upon themselves to further frustrate the efforts of hardworking Delta Youths, through their unending brutality which more often times than not, end up in extortions. This is totally unacceptable!
With unidentifiable AK-47 wielding improperly dressed policemen ‘blocking’ the road in unmarked Toyota Sienna vehicles across the state, looking out to verbally assault and subsequently extort every youth in any vehicle, be it public or private, one is left to wonder if we are in a militarized state. Even in the rather quiet state Capital being asaba, in a less than five kilometer distance, one would be threatened with countless checkpoints manned by police officers who are never polite, but would rush to flag down any neat vehicle being driven by a youth, one is then left to ask again, with all the empowerment programs His Excellency, Sen. Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, the Executive Governor of Delta state has put on ground to make youths in Delta state financially buoyant is it a crime to be successful in Delta state? Or are the police against the poverty eradication programs of the Delta state Government?
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which gives the Nigerian Police force the legal backing to operate still gives the Nigerian youth the right to privacy, the right to life, the right to freedom of expression and association and so many other rights which the Nigerian Police have fought so hard to deprive them of. This deprivation has to come to an abrupt end with immediate effect! We would no longer condone it!!
While the state youth council, led by her Digital Chairman, Comr. Kenneth Okorie is working tirelessly round the clock with other well meaning Deltans to calm Youths of the state who are already planning the mother of all protest, the council wishes to call on all concerned, especially the Commissioner of Police in the state, to nip this menace in the bud, before it blows into an unquenchable fire.
Sooner than later we would no longer be able to calm the nerves of Youths who have been pushed to the wall by the excesses of some men of the Nigerian Police force who have made criminality their watch word.
There should be an immediate end to forced confessional statements in all police stations in the state.
Remember, a stich in time, saves nine!
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Comrade Tomi Akporoghene
Media/Publicity Secretary
National Youth Council of Nigeria