By Austin Ogwuda & Anayo Okoli

A Rights group, Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged, Centrep, has described the recent directive by President Muhammadu Buhari dismantling all military check-points across the country as a welcome development and one of the best decisions taken so far by the Federal Government.

This came as an Abia State-based group, Asa Leaders of Thought, ALT, commended the President for the decision.

Centrep, however, called for proper training as well as funding of the police to enable them discharge their statutory function of maintaining law and order.

President Muhammadu Buhari

The group in a statement, yesterday, by its Executive Director, Mr. Oghenejabor Ikimi, said: “It is, indeed, an aberration for soldiers who are trained to defend our territorial integrity and ward off external aggression to be engaged in the maintaining of internal security.

“We believe that the duty of maintaining law and order, and internal security in a country lies with her police force as policemen and women are trained to be civil to the populace while discharging their statutory duties of maintaining internal security, but the soldier’s training and orientation is to kill.

“Little wonder the nation had in the past experienced cases of extra-judicial killings of innocent Nigerians at various military check-points nationwide and in the hands of security outfits like the Police/Military joint patrol teams set up by various state governments to maintain internal security in their various states.

“These Police/Military joint patrol teams often consist of police, army, navy and air force personnel who have acquired different trainings and orientations.

‘’The above arrangement was not only a chaotic one that took the lives of many innocent Nigerians in the process under the guise of ensuring internal security, but same was pure madness.

“Apart from the fact that many of the military checkpoints across the nation were death traps, innocent Nigerians were on a daily basis harassed, maimed and sometimes subjected to various kinds of corporal punishments at these check-points.

Meanwhile, Asa Leaders of Thought, ALT, in Aba, Abia State, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari on his directive to the military high command to disengage soldiers from check-points in parts of the country, describing the decision as a right one made at the right time.

The group also called on President Buhari to quickly restructure the police and train them to be effective.

In a statement in Umuahia  by Chief Ralph Egbu and Dr. Ikechi Ajuziogu, National President and National Secretary, respectively, the group told President Buhari that restructuring the police would make them to step away from the old order of  human rights abuse of citizens, extorting money and leave criminals to have a field day.