Human rights: Police, stakeholders urge FG to integrate course into national education curriculum.

Participants at a one week sensitisation workshop on human rights for the Nigeria Police Force have called on the Federal Government to integrate Human Rights Training into the National Education Curriculum and security agents’ training institutions.

This is one of the recommendations of the participants which included members of the Nigerian Bar Association, the civil society, the judiciary and other stakeholders in the justice sector held in Calabar.

Media Coordinator of the workshop, Abdulkadir Ibrahim, said participants also suggested human rights training for the political class, traditional and community leaders.

The participants called on stakeholders in the justice sector to avoid delays in the criminal justice delivery process with its attendant economic and social cost implications for both the state, detainees and their families.

The workshop called for a mass orientation of members of the public on patriotism, discipline, respect to authorities, good neighbourliness, peaceful co-existence and adherence to the rule of law.

Other resolutions agreed by the participants included an advice to officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to protect and treat all citizens equally without discrimination to gender, race, colour, or religion.

The workshop noted that police personnel were also human beings and entitled to all rights accruing to other beings and the authorities concerned should improve the funding of the force, particularly the provision of adequate and effective working materials and other logistics.

The week-long workshop was organised by the police and coordinated by Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) with the support of the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ).

Other partners are the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) of the Swiss Government and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

It was attended by Deputy Inspectors-General of Police Emmanuel Inyang (Training and Development) and Hyacinth Dagala (Intelligence and Investigation.