Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari should immediately constitute several Judicial Commissions of Investigations on the activities of the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and make recommendations on those to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. The rights group said the statement that the members of disbanded SARS would be redeployed to other units of the police and a team set up to investigate allegations of human rights violations against them should be taken as deception.

HURIWA said nothing good will come from an adjudication process instituted by the same institution of the Nigerian Police Force accused of gross human rights violations, adding that it is inconceivable that the Police wants to be both the prosecutor and the judge in the case of extensive use of extra-legal killing tactics against suspects by the operatives of SARS.

HURIWA said its position was against the backdrop of the announcement by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on the so called disbandment of SARS after millions of Nigerian youths spent days in the streets of cities across the country to denounce the criminal activities of the men and officers of the dreaded special squad.

It dismissed the announcement as an after-thought and a subterranean attempt by the IGP to set up another special squad through deceptive approaches even as it asked the protesters “to remain vigilant in case the Police hierarchy will simply rebaptize the dreaded SARS.”

HURIWA’s National Coordinator and the National Media Affairs Director, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and Ms Zainab Yusuf respectively, who jointly endorsed the media statement said it will be cosmetic and simplistic to just announce that SARS has been disbanded and that the members would be redeployed to other policing units across the country.

The rights group said this step is not far reaching enough since it will amount to mixing up rotten eggs with semi-rotten and fairly good eggs in the larger Nigerian Police Force.

“We are not convinced that the politically correct public statement disbanding the notorious SARS by IGP Adamu will change anything. At best it's like changing the colour of an old car and failing to overhaul the engine meaning that the vehicle will still be the same in substance and form.

“What should be done is for President Buhari, in partnership with the Chief Justice Muhammad Tanko to set up Judicial Review Commissions to go round the different SARS' killing fields to collate evidence-based statements and testimonies from victims of the brutality of the Police in camera, compile records and, if possible, to recruit forensic investigators to be embedded in the Judicial Commissions of Investigations of activities of SARS so that the killers of these detainees are named and arrested and prosecuted for the crimes against humanity that they committed.

“Honestly, this comical public show and theatre of the absurd by the police hierarchy to tell us that SARS has been disbanded is like a film trick in the Nollywood industry since these evil minded operatives being complained about will still be distributed to mix up with other police units across the country,” HURIWA stated.

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