Osinbajo assures anti-SARS protesters of justice, police reforms
• Group wants sexual offenders prosecuted
There is no need for executive order to disband the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Personal Assistant to the President on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, has declared in his verified Twitter handle, BashirAhmaad.
The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, had on Sunday announced the disbandment of the squad, after days of public outcry by protesters across the country.
However, #EndSARS campaigners insisted yesterday that the street protests would continue until President Muhammadu Buhari issued an executive order scrapping the unit. The protests continued across the country on Monday despite the IGP’s pronouncement.
Ahmad, however, argued that SARS was not created by any executive order or legislative act, noting that the IGP had the authority to disband the squad, which he had done.
His words: “The defunct SARS was a unit of the police. It was an administrative creation of the IGP, not created by any executive order or legislative act.”
IN the same vein, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that government is committed to full-scale police reform as well as ensuring that wrongdoers are duly investigated and prosecuted.
The Vice President told State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa yesterday, just after Buhari had assured Nigerians that the disbandment of SARS was government’s first step to extensive police reforms.
In a statement made available to The Guardian by his Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the Vice President disclosed that the president spoke about the prosecution of errant law enforcement agents.
FOLLOWING the disbandment, government has been urged to dismiss and prosecute any officer found complicit in cases of sexual and gender-based violence.
The Communications and Advocacy Manager, Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action), Lillian Akhigbe, urged government to also deal with allegations of rape, sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence by law enforcement agents in the country.
Akhigbe noted that amid the uproar against the activities of SARS personnel, it was pertinent to also draw the attention of the government and the public, to the increasing cases of sexual violence involving some unscrupulous security operatives in Nigeria.
