SARS boys travel all over Nigeria with their own money for investigations —Ex-Lagos squad leader

In this report, LEKAN OLABULO went into the heart of the matter in the SARS policing controversy.

AS controversy deepens over the policing methods of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which have been globally condemned, a fresh insight is being offered on how a once-promising crime-bursting unit of the Nigeria Police Force became arguably the most hated in history of civil security in the country.

Most of the alleged atrocities committed by the police unit against the civil populace have been in Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous, most urban, most cosmopolitan, most prosperous and most diverse state. Little wonder the fiercest opposition to the continued existence of the unit, banned on Sunday by the Inspector General of Police, also came from the state and its citizenry.

As the debate shifts to the future of the police unit, with many influential Nigerians home and abroad, calling for its outright ban, a former squad leader, who pleaded for anonymity because he is still in service and was not authorised to speak on the matter, spoke at length with Saturday Tribune on the current poor public image of the special squad and how it metamorphosed from a beloved helper of the citizenry to its most hated foe.

Saturday Tribune investigations also revealed that Nigerians, especially residents of Lagos State, get to mix a lot of things together in identifying officers serving on the special unit and because of the difficulty in identifying who really belongs to the SARS team, the unit is usually blamed for nearly all unprofessional conducts of policemen from local divisional police stations and area commands.

The senior police officer, who once led SARS in Lagos, described the agitation for the scrapping of SARS as tantamount to wanting to throw away the baby with the bath water, warning that scrapping SARS portends great danger.

 

How we lost it –Ex-SARS leader

Speaking on the downturn in the fortune of SARS, the former leader said: “Most people don’t know what SARS is doing. Some people just joined the agitation against the unit because they saw others doing it. Criminals are also at the forefront of the battle against SARS but I must admit that the unit needs proper restructuring. As a police officer who has seen it all, I am of the view that we cannot do without SARS at this moment because that is the most feared unit in the police. SARS came into existence when the anti-robbery squads in the SCID were perceived as being ineffective and not fully trained and armed.

“When the unit was created, the first set of officers was specially trained and armed to tackle active and ongoing crimes and to track perpetrators of sophisticated and violent crimes and insurgents. SARS is the only unit of the Nigeria Police Force that is designed to tackle insurgency.”

The police chief further explained that: “The problem with the people is that they don’t know who is actually a SARS officer. Members of anti-robbery teams from divisions and area commands who commit offences are often labelled SARS. What people should know is that those from area commands and divisions are not SARS officers. SARS is a unit in the SCID but the officer reports directly to the commissioner of police in the state in emergency and high-profile cases. There are different units and SARS and they are structured in a way that the different teams have leaders who supervise their activities. They are Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT).”

He warned: “The same people who are calling for SARS to be scrapped will be the same people who will come out to protest high rate of crime if the unit is scrapped. I can tell you that unless a new unit like SARS is put in place, there will be an upsurge in crime rate if the unit is scrapped. Apart from the fact that SARS is the only police unit that can go to the scene of an ongoing violent crime, they take over and complete difficult cases from the police divisions and area commands.”

On the problem with SARS, the police chief blamed leadership inefficiency, lack of training and retraining as well as lack of proper funding for the rot in the unit. He said: “The problem started some years ago when the police leadership centralised SARS operation in Abuja. SARS has a commissioner of police in Abuja who controlled all the 36 states and FCT units. Personnel of the unit as well as their officers-in-charge were determined in Abuja without proper supervision and coordination. Lack of funding is also a major problem. These boys travel all over the country with their money for investigations. How do you expect them not to recoup their money? Most of the incidents of unprofessionalism of SARS men that were reported centred on money and extortion. The Federal Government should provide adequate funding and constant training and retraining for the SARS personnel.”

He added: “Some states like Lagos and Rivers cannot do without SARS. Lagos has SARS and the Rapid Response Squad (RRS). Look at what RRS is doing in the state. The unit is well funded and equipped by the state government and it has an experienced and disciplined commander. This is what SARS needs all over Nigeria. There is a strong need for proper supervision.”

 

‘Why SARS officers were arrested in Ajah’

Meanwhile, a new twist has emerged on the arrest of two Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad (FSARS) officers and one civilian who allegedly harassed and maltreated innocent citizens in the Ajah area of Lagos State. The owner of a supermarket, Emmanuel Umeodunukwe, claimed that the whole incident that led to the arrest of the two policemen and his manager was misrepresented and that the policemen saved customers and residents of the area from armed hoodlums.

He said: “I am the owner of Kas-Lennox Supermarket at Lafiaji by Bracecourt, opposite South Point, Ajah. What happened was that on Saturday, a customer informed me that some people were fighting in my supermarket. I rushed to the supermarket and saw some hoodlums numbering about four causing mayhem in the compound. I tried to calm the situation but it got worse. The next thing I heard was that the hoodlums had already overpowered the mobile policemen that were stationed there. The hoodlums remained adamant and were breaking valuables in my supermarket. I have a video recording as proof of all I am saying. They were causing mayhem and all the customers were scared, running helter-skelter. Everybody was looking and wondering what was going on. A customer that saw a team of armed policemen in a white mini-bus passing by alerted them. They stopped and entered my compound to save the situation. I quickly went to explain the situation to them because the boys causing trouble were area boys in the area that usually extort money from all of us, especially whenever our goods arrive for clearance. They have been doing that for long and efforts to stop them had failed. I pointed out the hoodlums that were terrorizing us with dangerous weapons to the men of the FSARS and they arrested them. They did not maltreat or torture them.

“They took them together with the manager of my supermarket to Ajah Police Station. To my greatest surprise, when they got to the station, my manager called to report that the FSARS operatives, he and the hoodlums were thrown into the cell on the orders of the area commander without making a statement.  As we speak, I am still in shock because the FSARS operatives came to save all of us who were being terrorised by hoodlums that have been holding sway in the area for long and I am still wondering the offence my manager and operatives of FSARS committed. They were detained until the following day and immediately after that, the hoodlums stormed my supermarket threatening to burn it down. Even in the presence of policemen at their station, they were still warning my boys that we better cooperate with them; that if we did anything, they would deal with us.”

Telling his own story, the supermarket manager, Azubuike Chidiebere, said: “I tried several times to inform them (the police) that we were the complainants, and that the policemen came to rescue us from the criminals but they did not listen to me. Instead, we were all thrown into a cell with the criminals and they were mocking us in there. In fact, they were released before us the next morning after a call came from a top police officer. I am not happy that I was treated like a common criminal for calling on policemen.”

 

Still no to SARS

Despite the arguments on the desirability of keeping the controversial police unit, residents of the state seem united in the conviction that it is anything but SARS. Convener of the Revolution Now group, Omoyele Sowore, activists and entertainment practitioners are mobilising the residents for sustained protest to end the unit.

A Lagos-based lawyer and social media personality, Segun Awosanya, popularly known as Sega L’eveilleur on Twitter, said: “We never advocated #ReformSARS. We want them scrapped. Romanticising the problems gets people killed. All tactical squads should be shut down for holistic overhaul. What was done now only referred us to where we were after the 2017 #EndSARS protest. The same thing the IGP repeated.”

Also, popular hip hop star, David Adeleke (Davido), said: “If we all come together as brothers and sisters and also as citizens of this country, we can end this nonsense.”

Another entertainer and popular Twitter user, Runtown, equally vowed to join the crusade, saying: “This has gone long enough and now we must take action… They must listen to us. They must make real and visible changes. Empty promises won’t work this time.”

A resident of Agbado who gave his name simply as Moshood  alled for the scrapping of the unit, saying: “I have been arrested by SARS twice and I was made to pay heavily. The first time, some friends and I were on our way to a baby naming ceremony when we were arrested. We were taken to a police station in the Iju area of Ogun State and made to pay N70,000 before we were released. The second time, I was on a bike in Alagbado and SARS officers stopped my bike and arrested me for being a “Yahoo boy”. They threatened to take me to court and I was forced to pay N50,000 before I was allowed to go.”

 

‘We’ll monitor probe of SARS officials’

Executive director of Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Okechukwu Nwanguma, described the latest efforts of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to reform SARS as “half measure,” saying that the police boss “needs to “do more.”

The RULAAC director said: “While RULAAC welcomes the IGP’s response to public outrage over increasing cases of atrocities by SARS and other tactical squads across the country, we hasten to note that these bans and restrictions on operational jurisdictions are only half measures that do not go to the root of the problem. They are, at best, perfunctory and knee-jerk reactions.

“While we also welcome the arrest of two FSARS operatives and one civilian accomplice in Lagos State, we note that in such rare cases where arrests were made in the past, outcomes of investigations were not made public or known actions taken. Cases end up being swept under the carpet. We will therefore monitor the progress of investigation and hope that, henceforth, the outcome of investigations into police killings, abuse and misconduct will be made public.”

The group pointed out: “In July 2020, the IGP announced the disbandment of the satellite offices and bases of the IGP Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and the Special Tactical Squad (STS).We welcomed the measure but noted, among other things, that the need to reorganise and enhance professionalism and effectiveness and make these units accountable was imperative. We also noted that by the disbandment, which we believed was warranted, the IGP had taken just the first right step in the right direction and that it remained for him, as we stated, to ensure that personnel involved in criminal conducts of torture, murder and extortion were investigated and punished accordingly for deterrence.

“We itemised specific egregious cases of abuses by SARS, IRT and STS, documented from across the country and urged the IGP to order investigation into the specific cases with a view to ensuring that the officers responsible for gross human rights abuses and misconduct were held to account and remedies accorded to the victims. That is the only way to win public trust and confidence about the seriousness of the police boss. What is required is for the police to demonstrate that abuses and misconduct by police officers will not be tolerated or condoned by the police hierarchy. Reorganisation or restricting the operational jurisdictions of police units is not enough to address abuses and impunity. It is only when the Nigeria Police demonstrate genuine commitment to transparently and effectively investigating and ensuring justice in specific cases of abuse that citizens can have confidence and trust in the police to protect them.”

 

Why police will remain corrupt –Crime expert

Crime expert and media personality, Juliana Francis, weighing in on the SARS controversy, said: “Honestly, there’s really nothing here to discuss. We are all tired of the drama. Nothing ever changes. Same talk, no changes. The problem has always been enforcing these orders/instructions. Since this IGP came on board, police impunity has increased. He needs to do more if he really wants Nigerians to take him seriously. Enough of the barking; we want to see more bites. Again, ending SARS or scrapping it is not the solution to police impunity/corruption.

“SARS is a unit, it is not an entity. It is not a person. The problem does not lie with the unit but the personnel. Take a corrupt SARS officer off the field or unit, put him as a traffic warden or at a police station, he will still embark on rights violations and extortion. If we want a good police force, we definitely need to do more on funding. If you want the police to stop being corrupt, then, for God’s sake, stop making them buy their uniforms, boots, statement sheets, among other things, to run a station, unit or squad. Do you expect them to use their little salary to maintain patrol vans, fuel the patrol vans and then use it to respond to distress calls where they could get killed?

“And when they are killed, their wives and children are abandoned and kicked out of the police quarters. This awareness makes policemen to begin acquiring wealth to the detriment of members of the public. What about when they are wounded?  They are abandoned in hospitals. Most times, their colleagues tax themselves to pick hospital bills. They make contributions even to pay colleagues’ children school fees when the person dies or is on admission in hospital, injured in the line of duty.

“They all now live by the mantra of everyone to himself and God for us all. It is a whole gamut of mess. The barnyard needs to be cleansed. The problems are myriad and the challenges appear insurmountable but they are not. Among the solutions to corruption in the police is for the government to embrace scientific policing, which is what the world is doing now. It will eliminate torture and this stupidity of arresting people on hunch before looking for evidence to nail them.

“The IGP and even lawmakers are playing the ostriches, pretending not to understand the real problem here. Changing the name of SARS or scrapping it is not the solution.”

 

 

 

#EndSARS: Nigeria Police To Host Naira Marley On Live Chat 

In response to concerns and complaints by Nigerian youths on the issue of unprofessional conducts by some Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) operatives of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the force has invited Nigerian singer and rapper, Azeez Fasola, popularly known as Naira Marley, to a live interview session with its Public Relations officer on Instagram.