A pro-democracy group, Citizens Action for Good Governance, has called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to ignore calls by some dissident Nigerians for the scrapping of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit of the Nigeria Police Force.
DAILY NIGERIAN reports that #EndSARS movement is on-going, following reported cases of alleged extra-judicial killings by the police unit.
On October 5, a House of Representatives member representing Ona-Ara/Egbede Federal Constituency of Oyo State, Oloye Akin-Alabi, had filed a motion seeking dissolution of FSARS, following public outcry against the operatives of the police unit.
However, addressing newsmen in Abuja on Friday, the National Coordinator of the group, Nazir Galadanchi, noted that ending SARS is tantamount to giving license to armed robbers to unleash terrors on innocent citizens.
Mr Galadanchi, however, noted that there are bad eggs in the security unit who, according to him, had been unleashing terrors on helpless citizens leading to outcry against those bad elements misrepresenting the good essence of the police force.
He, therefore, called on the IGP to consider reforming and retraining the officers in order to make them a model for the rest of the world.
According to him, the squad needed reforms and retraining in order to make them more efficient and professional in discharging their duties.
This, he said, would go a long way in curtailing some excesses and over-steeping their scope of assignment or operation.
Mr Galadanchi, while emphasizing on the need for quality control on the officers, said the mechanism would help to control officers who derail from their primary assignment.
He assured that the mechanism would also weed out bad eggs from the squad.
According to him, it is the approach to clear personnel who have not been professional in discharging their duties.
“This should be in a way of conducting tests, or interviews and monitoring,” he said.
While harping on enlightenment on rules of engagement, Mr Galadanchi said the SARS operatives need to understand their assignment as professional police officers.
He said: “When they understand the rules of engagement, they will be more careful and professional in their job, hence reduce the hue and cry of Nigerians.
“When operatives of FSARS are given better welfare, they will not be tempted to be lured by citizens who are influential with their position, wealth and connection to do what is not part of their rules of engagement.”
He also advised on the usage of public feedback as an important tool for the identification of excesses.
He said: “There should be telephone numbers, social media platforms that will give room to the public to send feedback about SARS’ operations in their respective areas whereby they can interact, lay complaints, commendations, recommendations and possibly reward personnel with outstanding performance.
“There should be medical check-ups for personnel to identify those with mental issues, psychology challenges, drug addiction, and others in order to prevent unnecessary provocations, intimidation and oppression.”
Mr Galadanchi urged the government to reward outstanding performances by SARS operatives as a way of motivating for the officers through incentives.
This, he said, would make them commit to duty as well as making more sacrifices to secure the lives and property of Nigerians.
