The acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, has ordered the immediate disbandment of the Federal Speciall Anti-robbery Robbery Squad (FSARS), Special Investigation Panel (SIP) and Special Tactical Squad (STS).
Adamu announced this on Monday at his inaugural conference with Commissioners of Police and other senior officers in Abuja.
Based on the directive, FSARS will henceforth be domiciled under the direct supervision of the commissioners of police in 36 states of the federation.
Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, while he was acting president in August 2018, directed former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris to overhaul the management and activities of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The security outfit has been widely accused of highhandedness and extra-judicial killings.
It was the subject of #EndSARS, an intense online campaign that called for its dissolution and morphed into street protests in different parts of the country. There were also counter-demonstrations.
Osinbajo’s action came a week after he sacked the director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS) for an unauthorised deployment of masked personnel to the National Assembly complex.
President Muhammadu Buhari was in London on vacation.
Osinbajo, in a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, asked the IGP to ensure any unit that would emerge from the process, would be intelligence-driven and restricted to the prevention and detection of armed robbery and kidnapping as well as apprehension of offenders linked to stated offences, and nothing more.
The vice president then directed the police boss to ensure that all operatives in the emerging unit conduct their operations in strict adherence to the rule of law and with due regard to international human rights law and constitutionally guaranteed rights of suspects.
The operatives would also bear proper identification whenever they are on duty.
Osinbajo further directed the National Human Rights Commission to set up a panel to investigate the alleged unlawful activities of the squad.
-GUARDIAN-
