…as CP orders shutdown of all SARS outpost
Juliana Francis
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Zubairu
Muazu, has ordered the immediate shutdown of all outposts of the Special Anti-Robbery
Squad (SARS) in the state.
The number policeman, who gave the instruction, last
week, said that the SARS operatives were deliberately working outside their job
description.
The implication of the order is that all SARS
operatives with outposts in different parts of Lagos and police stations will
return to the state command, Ikeja.
According to a source, “The SARS men had already
started returning to base. They have returned their rifles and came to base
with their suspects.”
Henceforth, instructions or calls for SARS
operatives will mean leaving the command to head to wherever the call came
from. Some security stakeholders and analyst have argued that SARS operatives
working from outposts make them difficult to monitor and controlled.
The first SARS outpost in Lagos State was during the
administration of Kayode Aderanti, now a retired Assistant-Inspector General of
Police (AIG).
Kayode created the outpost in Ikorodu when militants
were operating with impunity and kidnapping too many victims. The militants
also attacked police stations. The SARS Ikorodu outpost was created to check
the activities of militant kidnappers in that axis.
It was during the administration of CP Edgal Imohimi
that more SARS outposts were duplicated in different parts of Lagos.
The shutdown of all SARS outposts started after SARS
operatives, operating from Ijora Police Station, acting on a petition, went to
arrest an alleged armed robber. The SARS team was led by an Inspector of
Police.
The policemen were attacked by members of the
community, while the Inspector was badly injured.
The source said: “The instruction right now is that
all SARS outposts should be shutdown, except Ikorodu and Badagry.
“The CP said shutdown the outposts because the SARS
operatives were not doing what they were expected to do. The shutdown was
caused by SARS operatives from Ijora Police Station. According to them, they
received information and also a petition, that a man had a gun and had been
using it to rob. When they got there, they arrested the suspect. Unfortunately,
the place was close to an Indian hemp joint. When the suspect was picked,
people came out ad refused the SARS operatives to take him away.
“His wife also came out and started struggling with
the SARS men. For reasons nobody could fathom, the wife suddenly fell to the
ground and fainted. Nobody touched her. The people started shouting that SARS
men had killed somebody. The SARS men were attacked and the inspector that led
the team was seriously injured.
“During the commotion, the suspect, who was already
in handcuff, escaped. The wife, who had
earlier fainted, got up and disappeared. When the Divisional Police Officer
(DPO) in charge of Ijora Police Station, heard about the incident, he was
angry. He called the Deputy Commissioner of Police, in charge of Operations (DC
Ops) and told him that the SARS operatives were causing problem in the
community. He told the DC that the SARS men beat somebody, leading to the
victim, a woman to fainting. The DPO said he didn’t want SARS operatives anymore;
that instead of doing their work, they were causing problem.
“DCP was angry and said that the CP had ordered that
all SARS outposts be close and every SARS operative to return to base.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer
(PPRO), when asked why the outposts were shutdown, he said that he story was a
lie.
According to him, such an issue was a policy matter
and even anything of such was going to happen, he would be alerted and a press
statement would be made to that effect.
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