Wave Makers, Sankofa trains Law Enforcement Agents, others on Human Rights
By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna
As part of effort to ensure Law Enforcement Agencies and other rights stakeholders adopts human rights based approach in handling issues of Key Populations in Kaduna State, Wave Makers Initiative for Health and Youth Empowerment (WIHYE), in partnership with Initiative Sankofa D’afrique de l’ouest (ISDAO), organised a four day training for Police and Civil Defence Officers and other Stakeholders.
Participants for the training were drawn from Officers on Human Rights, Legal, Gender desks, DPOs, Training Headmasters, Legal Aid Council, Hisbah and Kaduna State AIDS Control Agency (KADSACA).
The training according to the Executive Director of Wavemakers, Chief Bennett Nduka, will enhance the knowledge and capacity of the law enforcement agents in handling issues affecting sexual minorities in the State.
He explained that through the diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC), training, law enforcement agents are expected to stop dehumanization and degradation of arrested key populations and treat them like every citizen of Nigeria.
“This training also aims to achieve value and attitudinal transformation among law enforcement agencies for improved relations and protection of the Key Populations.
“At the end of the four days, we will both develop and print law enforcement tool kits and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as reference booklet for arrest procedures and to also mainstream SOGIESC in the curriculum of the police college.” Chief Nduka, said.
Speaking on the impact of the training, SP, David Irmiya, Officer in Charge of Human Rights, Kaduna State Police Command, noted that training will help correct some of the ills being perpetrated, especially by junior officers in the way the handle arrest.
“We have been refreshed with latest practice and also how those people feel and how they should be treated, especially when cases related to them are reported to the police and how we should treat them as humans and also how to approach them.
“How to attend to their complaints and also how to accept them and to promote and encourage people of such vulnerability and not to be discriminated in the society whenever the complaint comes relating to them, they are also human.
“In fact, in the Police Act, going by the Section 4 of the Police Act, which mandates police to protect the lives and property of its citizens, it doesn’t really discriminate male or female.
“And also, we should treat every person that comes with complaints without impartial. We should treat people with dignity, we should treat people with equity. These are some of the things that this training encourages us to do. SP. Irmiya, explained.
He said the training was inline with the Inspector General’s 2025 commitment to train and retrain police officers all over the nation so that some of the things that people are complaining about the police will drastically reduce.
“As police, we are here to serve the society and we will do that to the best of our ability in protection of life and properties.
“The idea of this programme actually is for us to take it down to the grassroot. We have been trained as trainers, we will go back to organise seminars at the command level and also at the division level that we will ensure that this knowledge that we gathered here will not just remain in us but we will pass it to the subordinate because a lot of times some of this misconduct and that’s because they are not equipped with the current practice procedures of the police.” He added.
On his part, David Aku, Officer in Charge of Gender Desk, Kaduna State Police Command, commended the organisers for their foresight in coming up with such training to begin the year with.
He therefore called for more collaboration with the organisation to further equip men and women of the police force and other law enforcement agencies in the State and the country in general.
