Fake news engineered #EndSARS protest, says IGP

The Inspector-General Police, Mohammed Adamu, has blamed the recent #EndSARS violence in different parts of the country on fake news which circulated on social media.

The IGP said this in Lagos on Tuesday evening during a tour of assessment to the burnt and vandalised police stations and other formations in Lagos State.

He also disclosed that a total of 1,590 suspected hoodlums, who went on rampage to loot and destroy private and public properties during the protest, had been arrested in different parts of Nigeria.

He also commended men and officers of the state police command for exhibiting calmness and professionalism in the face of provocation during the violence that marred the protest.

He said: “The protest was engineered by fake news” and added that the operation did not in any way involve the operatives of the disbanded Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS).

“Everyone knows that if a protest stays too long, it will be hijacked and that is what eventually happened. We know that not everyone in the country is condemning the police because we have received calls from various people commending us, telling us they see and appreciate what we are doing.

“Not everyone in the country will agree that police is bad, we have a few bad eggs but the majority are good. The police are special Nigerians in charge of the protection of the citizens and we must be treated specially.”

Welcoming the Inspector General, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, urged the IGP to give posthumous promotion to men and officers of the command that were killed during the protest.

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This according to him will not only give succour to the families of the fallen officers but also ginger the morale of the other policemen, who are still alive.

Odumosu said: “With your presence here, our spirit is high now like before, we are not coward, we are ever ready to confront the menace of hoodlums in all ramifications in the command.

“Through the IGP community policing, we are working with residents who have assisted us in the recovery of some of the looted items. We also recovered arms and ammunition and a lot of stolen properties.

“I want to appeal to the IGP to give posthumous promotion to the departed officers and men of the command who lost their lives during the #EndSARS protest because it will give succour to the family they left behind.”

Fake news engineered #EndSARS protest, says IGP