The
defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was obviously created to aid the
police in ensuring that there is safety and sanity in the state. It was also
created to ensure that criminals who engage in robbery activities do not have
their way in the society. As their name connotes, it is a special anti-robbery
squad which means it is against robbery of any kind, whether armed or unarmed
robbery. I must first commend the defunct SARS for the legitimate roles they
have played in the fight against criminal activities in Nigeria.
However,
there is a saying that goes thus: "when purpose is not known abuse sets in".
I would like to discuss some of the ordeals that have been experienced by Nigerian
youths in the hands of this "special squad".
To
begin with, often than not, the SARS officials engage in unlawful detention of
youths in the state. It is almost a crime in the state to look rich or to drive
a fancy car while you are in your early twenties. There is a discrimination
that follows the fact that you are rich but still very young. This
discrimination needs to be broken. Whenever this anti-robbery squad cites a
young Nigerian in a flashy car or in designer clothes, he or she is considered
to be a fraudster without proper investigation into his or her source of
wealth, but rather quick assumptions are made.
This
is appalling and degrading. Furthermore, these SARS officials have been engaged
in physical assaults of most youths in the state. When a car is flagged down by
these officials and its owner is a young man or woman, he or she is told to
come down from the vehicle and forcefully held against his or her will from
continuing the journey that was being made before by the "victim".
The
SARS officials then starts to ask questions that are often times irrelevant to
the situation at hand. Questions like "where is your driver's
license" is not asked but questions like "let me see your phone or
who bought this car for you?" are asked. Failure to answer these
irrelevant questions leads to heavy blows and slaps being rained on the victim.
In addition, these SARS officials strike fear
instead of hope in the hearts of the young people thereby making the road an
unpleasant place to drive on for many of these youths for fear of assault and
unlawful arrest.
Their
presence stirs fear, anger and hatred in the hearts of the youths in the state.
Their activities are demeaning and not what we looked forward to when they were
being created. Their job was to protect, but they put innocent lives in danger
and instead of making the state a peaceful zone, they are making things worse
for the citizens of the state.
The
Special Anti-Robbery Squad activities are against Nigerian youths which
includes unlawful detention of young adults for no crime at all, manhandling of
innocent youths and making the state unbearable for the future leaders.
Although SARS has been scrapped and ultimately renamed to SWAT (Special Weapon
Tactical Team), we believe they are absolutely the same as SARS and if not well
reformed would abuse power more than the defunct SARS. The police sector or
department of this country should therefore be looked into by the government
and necessary actions should be taken to make it better.
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