SP HUNDEYIN TO NIGERIANS: ‘WE DON’T HAVE 911 HERE SO WHEN YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING’; WSCIJ REITERATES COMMITMENT TO CIVIC FREEDOM, GOOD GOVERNANCE
By Oki Samson, Trek Africa Newspaper
The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO for Lagos State Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin has pleaded with Nigerians to reveal important information which could enable the Nigeria Police to track down criminals in the state.
He made this passionate appeal when he spoke as one of the panelists in the Civic Space Guard Project organized by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) supported by the MacArthur Foundation, the Luminate Group, the Open Society for West Africa and the Ford Foundation.
L-R: DPO, Ilupeju Division, SP Matilda Ngbaronye; Popular Comedian, Mr. Macaroni and Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Lagos State Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin at the Civic Space Guard Conference.
Noting that the civic space is opening up, SP Hundeyin told Nigerians, ‘We work with information. We don’t have 911 here so when you see something say something. That’s why I appreciate the work of journalists. They bring issues to our notice. We appreciate when people bring to us information.’
‘In every Police department, you may see cases of Police officers who are overzealous, I will not dispute that but the truth is we have internal mechanisms to checkmate it.
This is why we paste the phone numbers of the Area Commanders and DPOs whenever issues of police brutality come up.’
In her opening speech, the Executive Director/CEO of Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) stated: ‘This is a free space and that is what the civic space is about. We have the right to demand good governance. We have the right to speak up. It is our common wealth. It belongs to Nigeria.’
