#EndSARS: Panel Blows Hot Over Abba Kyari, Others

The independent investigative panel on allegations of human rights violations by members of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other units of the police force on Tuesday, in Abuja, has read the riot act to officers refusing to appear before it to answer questions.

The panel wondered who and what was emboldening certain security operatives to keep ignoring its orders amid various petitioners indicting them for alleged enforced disappearance, torture among others.

A member of the panel, John Aikpokpo Martin, specially queried why the Commander of Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IGP-IRT), DCP Abba Kyari and other police officers keep failing to appear before it in the case (enforced disappearance) filed by one Raphael Ushahemba Ashwe and Mr. Morris Fate Ashiwe.

But the police legal team led by James Idachaba told the panel that DCP Abba Kyari had been absent from proceedings due to a national assignment he was engaged with.

The panel, however, countered Idachaba, saying that was not an excuse since the panel was established following a directive by the federal government and was geared towards investigating alleged human rights violations by the police.

Aikpokpo Martin who represented the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in the panel, further said that what Idachaba should have done was to seek for an extension of time to produce Kyari and others.

The National Human Rights Commission stated that the panel “declared that it will not succumb to any plan by the police to render the panel impotent.”

Martin also vowed to notify the NBA of the development.

THE WHISTLER earlier reported that the panel had on March 3 observed that the refusal by some officers to appear before the panel to answer questions regarding allegations of human rights violations levelled against them casts the police in bad light.

It also urged the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to address the anomaly urgently.