By Tosin Omoniyi, Abuja

The Nigeria Police Force has indicated its willingness to reassess the use of force and firearms by its officers and men in the discharge of their duties.

It said that this was to ensure that the Nigerian Police conforms to international best practices.

The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Solomon Arase, who said this on Tuesday during a parley with reporters at a policy workshop in Abuja, disclosed that the police had lost over N1bn in the last three years to costs from litigations alleging infractions on the rights of Nigerians by its personnel.

Arase also used the occasion to warn officials that the era of impunity and indiscriminate use of force and firearms is over.

He said the disproportionate use of force by armed personnel was no longer permissible in an atmosphere of heightened political consciousness in Nigeria and rising international condemnation.

It would be recalled that Amnesty International had consistently accuse the nation’s security forces, including the police, of constantly trampling on the civil rights of Nigerians, particularly in the North east where troops are battling Boko Haram insurgents.