By Akinwale Kasali
The dissolving of the Special Armed Robbery Squad, SARS, nationwide on Sunday, by the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu, has not put an end to the street protests.
Monday morning, protesters in Lagos took the streets, again, blocking strategic streets in Ikeja and the Lekki tollgate, and triggered a monstrous traffic gridlock.
Thousands of exasperated Nigerian youths had taken to the streets, nationwide, in protest against the brutalities, humiliation and brazen extortion meted out to mostly innocent Nigerians, especially, youths, by SARS operatives.
The #EndSARS protesters were joined and supported by many Nigerian Celebrities, including two daughters of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Zahra and Kiki.
A couple of days into the protests, the IGP stripped SARS of most of the functions its personnel appropriated to themselves, ordered them off the roads, barred them from scrolling people’s phones, and asked them to wear uniforms so Nigerians can differentiate between them and criminals.
The steps taken by the IGP were not enough for them. Nor was the order given to the IGP by Buhari to look into the excesses of SARS, as presented by the protesters.
On Sunday, the Nigerian Government bowed to the protesters whose main goal was the ending of SARS.
At a Press Conference he addressed in Abuja, IGP Adamu scrapped SARS nationwide, and ordered the immediate redeployment of its personnel.
But the protesters are not pacified. They are asking for more. They say a Presidential Executive Order is needed to back the dissolution of SARS, if it is going to carry any weight.
They insist that this same IGP had banned SARS a couple of times before. But the outfit came back stronger and worse than before.
They are also asking for the immediate arrest and prosecution of all SARS operatives who brutalised, extorted and killed innocent Nigerians.
During the recent #EndSARS protests, a couple of youths, and, at least, one police personnel were killed.
The protesters are, also, asking the Governments of the USA, United Kingdom, and the European Union, to impose Visa restrictions on the IGP, his Deputies and his Assistants.
The call for Visa restrictions on them was first made on Sunday by a former
Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Timi Frank. Frank said the the appeal to the “Governments of the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) to impose VISA restrictions on the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, his deputies and assistants over SARS, was necessary to teach them a lesson for condoning the atrocities for too long.
Frank in a statement in Abuja. Sunday, said the call became imperative to restore civility and decorum to the activities of the Nigeria Police in their dealings with innocent citizens.
“Just like the visa restrictions on election riggers in Kogi and Bayelsa States helped to ensure a free, fair and credible election in Edo State recently, we are convinced that a similar action from members of the international community” will clean up the NPF.
He, also, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry where victims of SARS’ torture, extortion, and the family of those killed extra-judicially can seek redress and SARS operatives found culpable punished according to law.
He condemned the Senate President Ahmad Lawan for saying SARS should not be banned despite their manifest impunity towards Nigerians, and urged the 9th National Assembly to rise up and defend the rights of Nigerians who voted them into office.
“Lawan, apparently, has lost touch with reality to think that his sentimental cum window dressing solution is enough to tame the heinousness of the SARS’ operatives who appear to have sold their souls to the devil. The Senate President’s suggested reform of SARS is delusional at best.
“The intervention of the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and half-hearted gyrations in their chambers. The lives of the people that elected them are in grave danger of greedy SARS’ operatives.
“They cannot afford to engage in delay tactics through bogus probes. Nigerians need to see true and passionate action to disband SARS and all other tactical outfits of the police whose activities are inimical to the peace and security of the people,” Frank said.
He also called on the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi and the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Musiliu Smith, “to wake up from their slumber in the face of egregious acts” by the now dissolved SARS of the police against members of the public.
On Monday in Lagos, it was business, as usual, for the #EndSARS protesters. They insist the dissolution of SARS was no longer enough. They want to see the bad eggs who killed and maimed innocent citizens prosecuted. The protests continued unabated.
