Nigerian governors have warned against reversal of the ban of Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other tactical squads by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.
The Governors, in a statement by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Dr. Kayode Fayemi, recalled that SARS was banned in the past only for it to go back to its old ways.
Fayemi who described the ban as a timely clinical response by the leadership of the Nigerian Police Force, decried the menace of SARS on the people they are meant to protect.
He noted that the ban will significantly reduce the various infractions of the force that the ordinary Nigerian people have been complaining about.
“The IGP’s instructions could not have come at a better time when majority of Nigerians are unhappy with this cohort of police officers who have routinely engaged in unlawful killings and torture, thereby giving the force a bad name,” Governor Fayemi stated.
The governor demanded that the ban should be promptly “followed by action and that there will be no reversal to the unorthodox enforcement practices being complained against.”
Governor Fayemi warned that young people should not be criminalised “simply on account of how they look or their mode of dressing or the cars they drive, the type of phone they carry, etc. This is an assault on their fundamental human rights.
“We also completely agree with the directive of the IGP that no personnel of the force is authorised to embark on patrols or tactical assignments in mufti forthwith.”
The governor called for appropriate sanctions against law enforcement officers that have been lawless and irresponsible in the exercise of their duties against ordinary Nigerians.