Job Osazuwa
It was a scary spectacle one afternoon in June 2018 at Gbaga Bus Stop, along Ijede Road, Ikorodu, Lagos. And till date, some of those who witnessed the incident say they have been unable to erase the memory from their minds.
An unmarked Toyota Camry 2000 model, speeding recklessly, suddenly faced oncoming traffic and blocked a commercial tricycle, popularly known as Keke Marwa. As soon as the vehicle stopped, four gun-toting men in black polo shirts and dark jeans raced out of the car and descended on the bewildered tricycle driver with the butt of their guns. The terrified passengers quickly darted out of the three-wheeler.
By the time the men, who were soon identified as operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police, were done, the driver had been badly bludgeoned. They left him on the road all bloodied, groaning in pain.
“They were angry that the driver of the tricycle did not leave the road for them when they were passing,” a police officer managing traffic in the area volunteered to the angry crowd after the operatives had left. “We begged them to let the man be, but they wouldn’t listen. That is how these SARS guys behave.”
Indeed, SARS has for long acquired considerable notoriety for gross abuse of human rights and unleashing violence on people at the slightest excuse. It was common to see SARS operatives stopping and searching individuals along the road in broad daylight. They would descend on people’s phones, checking messages, pictures, videos and social media chats.
Those who could not produce any means of identification became criminal suspects. The officers always defended their actions, arguing that they were doing all that to keep the citizenry out of harm’s way.
But the squad had on different occasions been accused of operating outside the law and brutality on Nigerians who were often powerless to defend themselves against criminal accusations levelled against them. Some of the victims have alleged that the torture meted out to them by SARS was harsh enough to make them admit an offence they did not commit.
Daily Sun gathered that anybody that was not well dressed was a natural suspect and highly sought-after by the SARS. Nigerians lamented that the men were acting as if they were commissioned to shoot on sight without being questioned. Not a few Nigerians have been despatched to their early graves by bullets from the officers’ guns.
In the past, the operatives could be called upon to forcefully wade into just any issue you could think of. They could be used to recover debts. The SARS reign could be described as years of consistent harassment and intimidation of the highest order. Stories of how individuals were unlawfully arrested, beaten and thrown into jail have been retold in virtually all parts of the country.
The fear of SARS resonated across the land. Many people trembled and quivered at the mere mention of SARS. According to the submission of many Nigerians, the officers’ impunity and abuse of power was second to none. Between 2015 and 2018, in Benin City, the capital of Edo State, the name “SARS” was strong enough to make a pickpocket flee for miles without daring to look back.
They were also accused of going after only the common man on the street, even as men of means but of questionable character were hardly bothered by the operatives. Many people believe that moneybags and affluent politicians were hardly ever stopped on the road or had their phones ransacked or subjected to one form of harassment or the other.
Last year, some concerned Nigerians, activists and civil society organisations launched the Operation #ENDSARS# campaign. The protesters called on the Federal Government to scrap SARS so that Nigerian citizens could enjoy a breath of fresh air. The campaign was a huge movement that many aggrieved Nigerians promptly embraced. Their argument was pegged on the view that a body established with the sole responsibility of keeping Nigerians safe but which had ended up doing the opposite was undeserving of remaining in existence.
On August 14, 2018, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo directed the then Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to review SARS operations. According to a statement signed by the VP’s spokesperson, Laolu Akande, the decision was sequel to complaints and reports on the activities of SARS.
Also in 2018, a human rights activist and lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), noted that, in 2014 alone, he received many complaints pertaining to alleged disappearances of scores of armed robbery suspects in police custody.
He said: “In the course of investigating the complaints, our law firm found that not less than 532 armed robbery and kidnap suspects were arrested, detained and paraded at crowded press conferences addressed by police commissioners in all the states of the federation. To my utter dismay, majority of the suspects were illegally executed by the operatives of the SARS.”
He advised the relations and friends of any suspect killed in police custody to press charges against the culprits.
Perturbed by the daily protests and the myriad of accusations against many of the overzealous officers of the squad, the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, within a few days of coming into office, ordered the immediate decentralisation of the SARS unit. which was hitherto centralised at the Force Headquarters, Abuja. The reorganisation, as alleged by many, also followed alleged unethical conduct by personnel of the unit.
Giving the order at a meeting with officers of the rank of commissioners of police and above in Abuja, Adamu said, with the new arrangement, commissioners of police in the 36 states and the FCT would assume full command and control on all SARS operations in their commands.
While the initiative is being perfected, the police boss said: “Henceforth, the operations of SARS, which is currently centralised at the Force Headquarters, is hereby decentralised. Consequently, with immediate effect, the commissioner of police in each of the 36 Police commands and the FCT is to assume full command and control authority on all SARS in their commands, while the FHQ Unit is, subsumed under the command of the Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Police in charge of Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (FCIID).
“The import of this is that the DIG FCIID and Command CPS shall, from this date, not only assume administrative and operational control of SARS in their respective commands, they shall also be directly held liable for any professional misconduct resulting from the operations of the units in their commands.”
Adamu also announced the disbandment of the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) and Special Tactical Squad (STS) and other quasi-investigative and operation units of the force. He said that the DIG FCIID would take over and review all cases being currently handled by the units. He declared that a comprehensive reorganisation of the Police Mobile Force (PMF), Counter-terrorism Unit and Special Protection Unit (SPU) would be undertaken.
Without mincing words, the acting IGP said that the essence of the reorganisation was to restore order and stop the current slide in policing standards. He also stated that it would discourage the proliferation and multiplicity of outfits competing for operational space in an unprofessional manner.
Charging the officers to remain dedicated to their duties by exhibiting the highest level of leadership and character, the police chief said that the capacity of personnel of the force would be enhanced towards situating its operations within the practice of intelligence-led policing.
While recounting his alleged brutality in 2018 in the hands of SARS operatives, Mr. Onyeme Henry said he was grabbed along Igwuruta-Etche Road in Rivers State, threatened and made to pay for crimes he did not commit. According to him, the police officers had ordered him to pull over. They checked his vehicle papers and everything was in order and went ahead to collect his phone and spent close to 15 minutes going through the contents. He said when they returned the phone, he thought that was the end of the drama but was dumbfounded when they demanded N5,000 so they could let him go.
A Lagos-based political analyst, Mr. Innocent Odubu, told the reporter that it was an insult to Nigerians to be molested by security agents who were funded by the people’s collective wealth.
Said he: “We read every day of how men of the SARS manhandle Nigerians. It is indeed sad because these security agents are funded by taxpayers’ money. This is an affront on all of us as a people. It is only in Nigeria that those who are supposed to protect you are the ones exposing you to danger. We have heard and read of innocent Nigerians who, out of fear of extortion, attempted to run away from SARS operatives but were gunned down.
“I see the new IGP’s intervention and restructuring the unit as good news. This happened as a result of the people’s continuous outcry in recent times. The IGP is a Nigerian and lives in Nigeria, he couldn’t have feigned ignorance of this loud wailings over the years. I am confident that this will go a long way to bring sanity to the high-handedness that has existed for long.”
Odubu, however, advised the police authorities to keep tabs on the activities of the reorganised unit to ensure that the officers and their heads do not derail on the new mandate.
A final year student of one of the federal universities in Nigeria, who identified himself as Omolola J.P., had once shared on his Facebook page how he was detained and embarrassed by SARS at Mangoro Bus Stop in Lagos. His offence? He was wearing a shirt and shorts. The operatives said he was indecently dressed.
“They asked me to bring out everything in the four pockets of my shorts. I was surprised when one of them asked me why I wore knickers to the express road. They delayed me for about 30 minutes and compelled me to sit on the floor at some point. One of them said l looked like an Internet fraudster despite the fact that they did not see anything on me relating to the accusation,” he said.
Omolola said the reorganisation was long overdue, but he would have preferred an outright disbandment of the unit. He expressed fears that the operatives might soon grow wings and begin to act beyond their boundaries.
According to Amnesty International Nigeria, apart from the torture of detainees and rampant bribery, some people have accused SARS operatives of stealing their cars or withdrawing huge amounts of money from their bank accounts.