THE leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students has urged the Federal Government not to contemplate scrapping of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) as being canvassed in some quarters.
NANS in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Mr Okereafor Opeyemi, in Abuja on Wednesday said government should think of restructuring the squad to be more effective in fighting crime and criminality in the country.
The statement read in part: “The attention of the leadership of the apex students governing body the National Association of Nigerian Students NANS has been drawn to the recent calls for the scrapping of the Special Anti Robbery Squad SARS a segment of the police by some agitators.
“NANS, however, considers restructuring of SARS rather than outright scrapping considering the positive impact of SARS in tackling criminality in states across the federation such as armed, Kidnapping, ritualists, cultism among several other are visible achievements of SARS.
“We are not unaware of the presence of some bad eggs in the Squad who derives pleasure in extorting, victimisation, oppression, Injustice and wrong killings of innocent people, but it should equally be known that all professions have its bad eggs.
“We hereby call on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris and the police service commission to as a matter of urgency restructure the squad even as we salute the mechanism been put in place to tackle SARS excesses.
“NANS is calling on the Police commission and Federal government to ensure prompt payment of salaries in order to get rid of the menace,” it said.