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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked Commissioner of Police Mike Okiro to stop random arrests by law enforcers in Lagos state in their search for members of the Oodua People's Congress (OPC), 'The Guardian' reported on Tuesday.
In a letter to Okiro, the NHRC's federal commissioner in charge of the south west, Kunle Fadipe, said the panel had discovered that many people were arrested on the streets where riots had occurred while others were victims of random raids, the daily said.
Fadipe gave the examples of two men, one an Ijaw and the other from Kwale in the Delta State, who were arrested and branded OPC members. He described this as "ridiculous" since the OPC is a organisation exclusively for Yorubas, 'The Guardian' reported.
Intensive police searches have been taking place since the kidnapping and killing of a senior police officer by a group of suspected OPC members who invaded a Lagos police station on 9 January. Two other policemen who were attacked with acid are also reported to have died.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions