Human rights activist, Femi Falana has called for the complete overhaul of the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS).
The Lagos-based lawyer made the call when speaking on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, on Tuesday.
According to Falana, armed troops and soldiers among SARS operators need to be removed and the policemen among them need reorientation as they operate like they are in a military government.
“You must remove the soldiers in SARS and retrain the police among them. You re-orientate them because they still behave as if they are under military dictatorship because SARS is a legacy of military dictatorship. As it is constituted, it is partly illegal under a civilian and democratic dispensation. Under the constitution, the duty of maintaining internal security, law and order in Nigeria is vested exclusively in the police.
“SARS is constituted by armed troops, soldiers and police personnel all over the country. Every state government maintains the SARS in the country and these state governments have not bothered to find out what is this body doing in terms of law enforcement, combating armed robbery and performance in terms of respecting the rights of the Nigerian people,” he said.
On whether the squad should be scrapped or reformed, Falana said Nigeria cannot afford to scrap SARS but it needs to be totally overhauled.
“The Nigerian new colonial state cannot afford to scrap SARS, it is not possible. We have an increasing wave of armed robbery, kidnapping, terrorism and other serious violent crimes which the regular police personnel have not been trained to curb or combat, therefore we are going to have SARS but it has to be totally overhauled,” he said.
