• IGP bows to pressure, North, South disagree
• Wizkid leads London ‘jubilation’
• Disbandment cosmetic says HURIWA

Yesterday's dissolution of the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad by Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu triggered mixed reactions. While youths and socio-cultural organisations in the South welcomed the announcement, which followed weeklong protests in major cities of the country, some northern interests insisted that SARS was useful for their region.

Nigeria


National
Ethnic fault lines show as IGP dissolves SARS
By Tunde Oyedoyin (London), Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt), Seye Olumide, Gbenga Salau (Lagos), Rauf Oyewole (Bauchi), Mansur Aramide (Gombe), Kanayo Umeh, Segun Olaniyi (Abuja)
12 October 2020 | 3:50 am

• IGP bows to pressure, North, South disagree
• Wizkid leads London ‘jubilation’
• Disbandment cosmetic says HURIWA

Yesterday's dissolution of the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad by Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu triggered mixed reactions. While youths and socio-cultural organisations in the South welcomed the announcement, which followed weeklong protests in major cities of the country, some northern interests insisted that SARS was useful for their region.


IGP Adamu who succumbed to pressure after an emergency meeting with a worried President Muhammadu Buhari disbanded SARS across all formations, the 36 State Police Commands, and the Federal Capital Territory.
The IGP, while noting that the dissolution was in response to the yearnings of the Nigerian people, hinted that all officers and men of the now-defunct anti-robbery squad were being redeployed with immediate effect.

The IGP who made the announcement at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja noted that the Force was not oblivious of the ever-present need to combat armed robbery, kidnapping, and other violent crimes in the country which was before now the core mandate of the erstwhile squad.

He also assured Nigerians that a new policing arrangement to address anticipated policing gaps would evolve and should be announced in due course.

He disclosed that the police force would constitute an investigation team to include civil society organisations and human rights bodies in investigating alleged cases of human rights violations.
Adamu commended all citizens, particularly those who genuinely expressed their concerns for a better policing orientation in an organised, patriotic, and civil manner.

PAN Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) welcomed the dissolution of SARS and described the action as a positive detour from established “unheeding” tendency of the Buhari administration. PANDEF’s National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson, said government, for once, heeded the uproar of citizens against SARS and acted promptly in disbanding the special squad, whose personnel went off their duty lines and core mandate of combating armed robbery, kidnapping, and other violent crimes in the country. He said SARS operatives became a terror, “with disturbing reports of their wanton misdeeds, particularly against young people, across the country.”

PANDEF further commended the courage and resilience of young Nigerians who peacefully expressed their anger in protests across major cities over the harassment, extortion, and brutality of SARS, leading to the dissolution of the Special Squad.

The ruling political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) also said it was in “full support of the disbandment.” The party, in a statement by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yekini Nabena, interpreted President Buhari’s intervention as an indication of his resolve to “achieve better policing and reform in the police force.”

IN London, Nigerian music megastar, Wiz Kid, led about 300 jubilant protesters of main youths in welcoming the dissolution of the special anti-robbery squad during Sunday’s #EndSARS Protest at the Northumberland Avenue office of the Nigerian High Commission.

There was a heavy metropolitan police presence in front and around the Commission, and an officer told The Guardian that the over 30 of them in attendance were picked from the special response team for events of this nature. Led by the Yemi Soile-led Nigerian Youths in Diaspora Organisation, the demonstrators carried various placards condemning the agency and chanted solidarity songs for over two hours, from noon when the protest officially began. Though, at around 1.40 pm, one of the cheerleaders was urging the crowd to go as “the protest is officially over,” which seemed to fall on deaf ears. Rather, chants of “solidarity forever, solidarity forever, solidarity forever....” and “oh my home, oh my home, when shall I see my home,...” filled the air as the enthusiastic crowd stayed put and disrupted the flow of traffic from and towards Trafalgar Square.

Though the news that SARS had been dissolved started filtering through the carnival-like demonstration towards the end, it wasn’t until Wiz Kid mounted a makeshift podium to confirm the news that the crowd started jubilation. Before being driven off in a black jeep, the afrobeat star told the enthusiastic demonstrators:” we have achieved our goal,” but “this is just the beginning.”

Echoing his view that such a massive demonstration should be expected to correct structural injustice in Nigeria, Soile told The Guardian that his organisation decided to call the protest to show solidarity to the hapless Nigerians being harassed and tortured in the country by the now-dissolved SARS operatives.
Kate Tayo, who came to the demonstration, alongside her friends, spoke with The Guardian, saying “l came out just to support and show solidarity for the cause.”

LAGOS State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the disbandment of the Special Anti-robbery Squad was a victory for youths of Nigeria, saying they voiced out and it was heard clearly by the government.

Speaking on arrival to Lagos from Ondo, where he had gone to participate in the just concluded governorship election, as APC campaign committee chairman, Sanwo-Olu said the protests held at different locations within Lagos showed the beauty of democracy and that people had the right to express their views.

Sanwo-Olu said he was full with the youths on their demand as he would not sit back and allow any resident to be maltreated.

MEANWHILE, there was confusion in Bauchi, as some northern youths, in a counter-protest, dissociated themselves from #EndSARS agitations

The group, under the aegis of the Northern Youth Assembly of Nigeria (NYAN), was seen with placards of different inscriptions at the Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). They said the Police formation only required reform.

Speaker of the group, Ukkasha Hamza Rahuma, who led almost 100 youths, said: “We have the belief that the decision of the Force to establish special anti-robbery squad was done in good faith to checkmate the illegal activities of kidnapping, banditry and armed robbery in the society following the rampant cases of the harassment and loss of valuable items to men of the underworld.”

The situation was not different in Gombe, where, hours after the announced disbandment, Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) in the state faulted the move, stating that the squad had helped to reduce crime.

Speaking on behalf of the group at a peaceful protest in Patanmi Stadium, chairman of PCRC, Kabiru Muhammad said SARS had helped in the recovery of Gombe children kidnapped and taken to other parts of the country.

Justifying their position, Kabiru recalled that the state once suffered from a militia group known as Kalari boys but was checked by SARS officials.
WHILE the altercation persisted, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) yesterday said the disbandment was cosmetic and grossly insufficient. The group demanded that President Buhari should immediately constitute several judicial commissions of investigations on activities of SARS and make recommendations on those to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. The rights group also said the statement confirming that members of the disbanded SARS would be redeployed to other units of the police and then a team set up to investigate allegations of human rights violations by the operatives of the disbanded SARS should be taken as deception since nothing good would come from an adjudication process instituted by the same institution of the Nigerian Police Force accused of gross human rights violations.
vigilant in case the Police hierarchy will simply RE-BAPTIZE THE NOW DISBANDED SARS.

Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the national coordinator and Miss Zainab Yusuf, national media affairs director, who jointly endorsed the media statement, said it would be cosmetic and simplistic to just announce that SARS had been disbanded and that the members would be redeployed to other policing units across the country. The group said the step was not far-reaching enough since it would amount to mixing up rotten eggs with semi-rotten and fairly good eggs in the larger Nigerian Police Force.

Presiding Pastor of the Latter Rain Church, Tunde Bakare advocated the need to re-evaluate, restructure, rebrand and rebuild the confidence of Nigerian masses in the course of the nation’s journey to national rebirth.

Bakare, who made the statement during a church service yesterday a few hours before the announced disbandment of SARS, said he had followed the #EndSARS protests with a heavy heart. He noted that “young and older Nigerians from various walks of life, across the length and breadth of the nation and the diaspora, are united in rejecting harassment, humiliation and the coldblooded murder of their fellow citizens.”




https://m.guardian.ng/news/ethnic-fault-lines-show-as-igp-dissolves-sars/

Nawa

What we need is a transparent process in our policing... You can keep employing ignorant waec certificate holders while graduates are still roaming the streets looking for jobs

Don't get me wrong when I call them ignorant because you can talk to a Nigerian police officer in plain English... It's very bad... Just like those ignorant waec holder in the streets, whom when they see with any classy stuff thinks you are into fraud or a thief... Even some of those ignorant fools are many here on nairaland... People that can't tell the difference between SARS and EFCC job... Just ask them if the have seen the SARS officials prosecute one yahoo boy in court... NO...
It's just like SWAT doing FBI job... Reason am

What we all should have stand for is #EndPOLICEbrutality, not just #EndSARS, because from the onset, they said to us.
SARS will be reformed(2015),
restructured(2016),
reorganized (2017),
reformed(2018),
immediately disbanded(2019),
now dissolved(2020)...(who is fooling who?)

The North can have the FSARS, we don't need it down South.
Next agenda is going to be either #Restructure Nigeria or #EndNigeria.

For those that errorneously think that Nigeria is a strong nation, the outcome of this protest should now tell you better. Nigeria is as weak as any other African country and the West will always arm-twist your leaders and force them to behave if they feel there is need.

Do you think if it were strong and "independent" countries like China, Russia, India, Iran etc. that they would have bowed to international pressure? Of course not, they won't bow because they're truly independent in every ramifications, so they won't take orders from Washington, London or Paris.

Nigeria will equally seize to exist once Southerners unanimously agree to end it and holistically mount serious pressure against it.

The north doesn't have to care as SARS aren't too active there.

If there is state police everybody will have power to establish whatever special unit they want!
Why is simple thing always become difficult in Nigeria?

There is structural defect that must be corrected.

To forge ahead, all hands must be on deck.

An injury to one is injustice to all.

The most abused line is one Nigeria.

Zanyking:


What we need is a transparent process in our policing... You can keep employing ignorant waec certificate holders while graduates are still roaming the streets looking for jobs

Don't get me wrong when I call them ignorant because you can talk to a Nigerian police officer in plain English... It's very bad... Just like those ignorant waec holder in the streets, whom when they see with any classy stuff thinks you are into fraud or a thief... Even some of those ignorant fools are many here on nairaland... People that can't tell the difference between SARS and EFCC job... Just ask them if the have seen the SARS officials prosecute one yahoo boy in court... NO...
It's just like SWAT doing FBI job... Reason am

You guys keep attributing results to brutality all dere oga that have high qualifications are they not benefitting from the return some of them are also graduate nd at same time a cultist, You joining the SARS weda with PHD automatically u will be brutal nd b added to d extortion WhatsApp Group...

This is one of the fault lines in this nation hence the need for regional security outfits to curtail insecurity.So what Nigeria need today is political restructuring wherein power is localized to the regions & used for regional development.

.

The sad thing is that most of those blood sucking SARS Officers terrorising us in the South are also Southerners.

The North keeps dragging the South backward all the time

Let's just go our separate ways

It's time the south United against those northerners

Dem no just get sense for that place

They can keep their islamic tool to themselves

i have said it severally its highly time we unit to stand against north..northern think they own nigeria that whatever they said would be don for them


imagine those protesting in favour of sars ..i saw them holding their postcard upside down which shown that they dont know what they ar doing......igbo and Yoruba should unite now...before it will be too late