Africa Press-Nigeria:
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, has been disbanded.
Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector-General of Police, made the announcement on Sunday afternoon.
This follows days of nationwide protest against the police operation.
Nigerians, mostly the youths, had taken to the streets of major cities to protest SARS’ brutality while the hashtag “ENDSARS” has trended for days on social media.
But disbanding the unit on Sunday, the IGP ordered all officers and men of the now defunct Special Anti-robbery Squad to be redeployed with immediate effect.
According to the Adamu, the dissolution of SARS was in response to the yearnings of Nigerians.
The IGP noted that the Force was not oblivious of the ever present need to combat armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes in the country which was before now the core mandate of the erstwhile Squad.
He assured that a new policing arrangement to address anticipated policing gaps the dissolution of SARS would cause has been evolved and shall be announced in due course.
Meanwhile, the IG said, “as part of measures to prevent a re-occurrence of events that gave rise to the dissolution of SARS, a Citizens’ and Strategic Stakeholders’ Forum is being formed to regularly interface with Police leadership at all levels and advise on police activities as they affect the general public.
