Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State on Monday described the killing of policemen by protesters in some parts of the country as evil.
El-Rufai, who spoke to newsmen in Kaduna after the meeting of the Northern Governors Forum and traditional rulers as well as other key stakeholders in the region, said the police must be supported to discharge their duties.
He said the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, had briefed the meeting on the #EndSARS protest and its aftermath.
He said: “We support the police.
“We believe that there may be some bad eggs in the police, just as there are bad eggs in any organisation, but it is no excuse to destroy or kill policemen.
“We hope to expand the footprints and the effectiveness of the Nigerian Police in accordance with their mandate.
“We have discussed closer collaboration with the Nigerian Police and the governors to enhance community policing as a first step.”
El-Rufai also said the forum agreed on the need for community policing.
He said: “State police is a big subject in the constitutional amendment, at least we agreed on community policing which is the first step.
“It is the community police that will transmute into state police when the constitution is amended.
“We believe that what is needed now is to restore confidence of the Nigerian Police, give them more resources, more training and equipment so that they can do their job better in accordance with the best human right standards.”
On the #EndSARS protest, the governor said that the organisers had best of intentions for the country although the movement was hijacked by anti-democratic forces.
El-Rufai said: “We believe that they have best of intentions, but there are people that are pushing their own evil, anti-democratic agenda.
“We have taken very clear positions on some of these issues and we also back our road map, looking at various aspects of our lives, including Nigeria’s economic challenges, developmental and the almajiri problems.
“We will be meeting again in February to measure our progress.”
