Osinbajo blows hot over SARS

 

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has expressed anger and dismay over extrajudicial killings by men of the Nigeria Police Force.

The VP said this in a statement by his spokesman, Laolu Akande after the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, had banned the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), the Special Tactical Squad (STS) and Intelligence Response Team (IRT) from undertaking routine patrols as well as stop and search duties.

The Vice President, who had earlier, held a meeting with the I-G at his residence, said the President and himself had discussed the matter on a number of occasions.

“Such violations are completely unacceptable because these are individuals who are meant to protect Nigerians.

“The arrest, maiming or killing of young people or anyone at all, is completely wrong.

“It is unlawful and illegal and anyone involved in this act ought to be investigated and prosecuted.

“Today, I had a meeting with the I-G and we reviewed several of these issues.

“The President is very concerned about it; he wants to see a reform.

“You are probably aware that the I-G has issued a statement looking at all these issues, in particular, the warning against the use of these tactical units such as SARS for purposes of doing anything other than anti-robbery.

“For example, he specifically said that you cannot have a situation where SARS says they are investigating cybercrime by arresting young men and women carrying their laptops and phones.

“Cybercrime is an electronic crime.

“I don’t see how you can investigate that by seizing people’s phones in a taxi or in their cars,” Osinbajo said.

He said it was obvious that a few bad eggs in the Police were causing all of the problems, adding that they would ensure that every one of those allegations against FSARS was properly investigated.