The honorable member representing Omuma constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon Kelechi Nwogu has called for total scrapping of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, (SARS).
Nwogu made the call in a statement forwarded to newsmen where he suggested that the police tactical Squad (SARS) should be collapsed into the conventional police structure.
The lawmaker mocked the directive of the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, banning the police Tactical Squad (SARS) from patrols following alleged harassment of innocent citizens.
It was gathered earlier that the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Abubakar Adamu, in a press release, last Sunday, banned the personnel of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) from patrols and stop-search duties with immediate effect following alleged killings and harassment of youths.
The statement reads: “we hear that the Inspector General of Police has banned FSARS and other police tactical squads from a routine patrol.
“This is not the first time the government is coming up with such a futile decision, each time the citizens lament about SARS murder, brutality, and gross human rights violation.
“The statement says they are banned from carrying out conventional low-risk duties, which means they can handle high-risk cases. This is the loophole they will capitalize on to continue to perpetrate a heinous crime against innocent Nigerians, in the name of cracking down on armed robbers and “Yahoo boys”.
“they have been told in the past not to dabble in civil matters anymore, but they still do. What they do is this, if a complainant comes to them with a civil case, they would influence the statement and change it to a criminal case, no matter how mild it is. They also advise petitioners to coin their petition to a criminal one if it wasn’t. They do these things so that they can fully come in and exploit all parties involved in the case”.
“Even where there is no crime, these guys create robbery scenes just to justify their invasion of that terrain. I can assure you that, this recent order from the IG can only be potent for three weeks at most, after that, it will be business as usual, “ the lawmaker stated.
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