A former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has reacted to the constant illegal activities of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a special unit under the Nigerian Police Force.
In a tweet made yesterday, Saturday 3rd of October, 2020 after the incident of a young man captured on video in Ughelli, Delta State who was shot and his Lexus SUV driven away by men attached to SARS trended on twitter, the politician accused the government of doing little to curb the menace.
The former presidential aspirant under the PDP, the main opposition to the current Buhari administration called on the government to instill law and sanity into the police force, stressing that SARS has become the oppressor of the Nigerian people.
It an be recalled that four SARS operatives on the 21 of August in 2019 were arrested and charged with murder after being caught on camera manhandling two suspected phone thieves who were eventually executed in broad daylight.
Again, on 5 September 2019, operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Lekki area of Lagos State allegedly kidnapped, tortured and robbed Nigerian rapper Ikechukwu Onunaku, popularly know simply as Ikechukwu. It was reported that the rapper was forcefully made to make several withdrawals at the ATM to pay SARS operatives without being convicted of any offence.
In the height of SARS brutality in 2018, severally attempts were made to reform SARS. Vice President Yomi Osinbajo, then in acting capacity as President ordered the overhaul of the controversial Unit. The Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris further renamed the Unit to Federal Anti-Robbery Squad and a new head was appointed. In January the following year, the SARS formation was decentralised by the current IGP and placed under the direct authority of the state commissioners of police. But none of these reformation have succeeded in holding back SARS operatives from brutalizing the Nigerian people daily.
