14th December, 2017
By Dele Agekameh
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigeria Police Force is one of the 14 units under the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID). The unit is charged with the prevention and investigation of armed robbery, one of the most serious crimes committed on Nigerian soil.
While most Nigerians, including many policemen, cannot identify any of the other 13 sections under the FCID, the acronym SARS is known countrywide. Frequently dressed in plain clothes, the operatives of SARS have proven to be the most unruly unit in any security service in the country – and that is putting it mildly.
Shabbily dressed, AK47-bearing men on the street in slippers are likely to be armed robbers or men of SARS. Similar not only in appearance, men of SARS are sometimes a greater evil on the roads than roving armed robbers. Armed robbers may stick to dispossessing a person of any luxury that catches their fancy before making a quick escape. On the other hand, men of SARS concentrate on dehumanising and humiliating people into submission through threats and violence before extorting them.
Little wonder that sordid tales of unguarded or misguided brutality and summary executions by men of SARS now litter social media in an on-going campaign calling for the folding up of the notorious unit. The calls have led the Senate to open an investigation into the nature and activities of the unit. Nigerians seem to have had enough of the unbridled terror and the atmosphere of fear and resentment that SARS creates. Protests have also been organised in multiple states to urge the government to scrap the unit.
It is often said that the men picked for SARS are hardened men who match the capacity for violence of desperate armed robbers. To let such men lose on the streets is not only irresponsible on the part of the police hierarchy, but it also shows a disregard for people’s dignity at the highest levels. SARS men routinely mount road checks at will, preying on young men and women, with no identifiable agenda other than to extort.
Worse than being openly humiliated, sometimes in full view of one’s family and children, people are being indiscriminately arrested by the unit. Many have been ‘arrested’ by SARS in circumstances closer to abduction, and are never heard of again. If they are not killed in transit, they are taken to crammed holding cells, where they are tortured and most likely killed, especially if there are no witnesses to their ‘abduction’.
Each and every SARS facility in any state is dreaded. The SARS headquarters in Abuja, known as the “abattoir”, is one of these. Apparently sited on what used to be an actual abattoir, the place has kept with the spirit and letter of that name through the deadly excesses of the men of SARS there. Close neighbours report gunshots in the dead of night, as in most other SARS bases, like Akwuzu SARS in Anambra and many others.
The arrest in Kaduna of one of the top campaigners calling for the end of SARS just last week struck fear into his colleagues, friends and family who took to social media to create awareness about his arrest. He was eventually released, probably because of the quick attention drawn to his plight. Nobody wants to think of what would have become of him, had no one been aware, after he was chained by the hands and feet and spirited to the abattoir in Abuja.
In many instances, SARS men display an unmistakeable ignorance of their duty. They hound smartly dressed young men, in good cars or even on foot and invade their phones and personal gadgets. People that have identified themselves with ID cards have had them broken and dismissed as fake without even a cursory investigation. Every young man is a “yahoo boy” and young woman a prostitute, by the SARS playbook. The men are stripped of their cash or taken to ATM points to drain their accounts, while unfortunate women are raped.
The men of the unit have also been used to settle personal scores. The efficacy of this strategy is ensured by their indiscipline and propensity for violence. One man reportedly sent SARS men after his girlfriend in a squabble over a car he gifted her. The “special” in the name of the unit has been rubbished by their common violence and indiscipline.
The stories are sickening, not only by the horrors described but by the sheer number of stories. By the accounts, without any research, it seems that one in every three Nigerian has been humiliated and extorted by men of SARS or knows someone who has been so shabbily treated. It is a wonder what percentage of SARS time is spent actually fighting violent armed robbers. Their impunity is based on an assumption that they have a license to kill and inflict unreserved brutality and they say as much. Where do they get this idea from?
In the midst of all the uproar, the police has denied these claims in a farcical response. Jimoh Moshood, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) and the force public relations officer, was on TV recently pointing fingers and accusing campaigners of political motivation, while denying the excesses of SARS. The reports are not new. Amnesty International released a report on SARS three years ago, detailing many of these same claims.
Books have been written on SARS and police excesses by some of the voices now calling for action, at least, a decade ago. To claim that the horror stories are untrue is insulting. The re-organisation of the unit now announced by the present inspector general of police has been tried before, most recently in 2015. Many of the SARS men need to be dismissed or reshuffled into positions where they do not deal directly with the public, to make way for scrapping the unit.
Veteran police officers often claim that the disposition of the public towards policemen usually leads to some of these cases. The truth is that there is no excuse for the treatment of the public that SARS men resort to. What level of defiance from a member of the public can justify taking him/her to the ATM point to clear his account? The fact is that these SARS men have no moral or professional compass and the public is sick of their rudderless menace.
Perhaps, the saddest part of the issue is that these men wear their notorious reputation like a badge while engaging the public. One is expected to be in fear when one encounters the group. Any show of confidence or frustration will most likely end badly for an unsuspecting member of the public.
The menace of SARS is domestic institutional terror and it seems that there is no level of reorganisation that can take away the stigma. These are the things that the Senate and the Presidency ought to bear in mind in considering this matter going forward.
The institutional approach to crime fighting is also to blame for the excesses of SARS. The police depends too much on reputation and not on efficacy to achieve its objectives. Outside of SARS, the mobile police unit popularly called “MOPOL” has its own reputation. Although not as lawless as SARS, their existence is more hinged on reputation for ruthlessness than for their efficacy. Same goes for teams code-named “Operation this and that” that now litter everywhere in many of the states of the country.
The time has come for the police to wake up to their responsibility of protecting the public through efficient monitoring and intelligence gathering rather than a brutal reputation which can get out of hand, as in the case of SARS. Years of lawlessness cannot be reorganised away. It has become a lifestyle and the office/unit that facilitates that lifestyle needs to be scrapped as a matter of urgency.
Allowing armed men in plain clothes or faint SARS jackets without any personal identification to roam about and freely engage the public was always going to go badly. A situation where these men have built a deadly reputation and are still allowed to operate openly is irresponsible policing. This has to end now.
For comments SMS (only) to: 08058354382The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigeria Police Force is one of the 14 units under the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID). The unit is charged with the prevention and investigation of armed robbery, one of the most serious crimes committed on Nigerian soil.
While most Nigerians, including many policemen, cannot identify any of the other 13 sections under the FCID, the acronym SARS is known countrywide. Frequently dressed in plain clothes, the operatives of SARS have proven to be the most unruly unit in any security service in the country – and that is putting it mildly.
Shabbily dressed, AK47-bearing men on the street in slippers are likely to be armed robbers or men of SARS. Similar not only in appearance, men of SARS are sometimes a greater evil on the roads than roving armed robbers. Armed robbers may stick to dispossessing a person of any luxury that catches their fancy before making a quick escape. On the other hand, men of SARS concentrate on dehumanising and humiliating people into submission through threats and violence before extorting them.
Little wonder that sordid tales of unguarded or misguided brutality and summary executions by men of SARS now litter social media in an on-going campaign calling for the folding up of the notorious unit. The calls have led the Senate to open an investigation into the nature and activities of the unit. Nigerians seem to have had enough of the unbridled terror and the atmosphere of fear and resentment that SARS creates. Protests have also been organised in multiple states to urge the government to scrap the unit.
It is often said that the men picked for SARS are hardened men who match the capacity for violence of desperate armed robbers. To let such men lose on the streets is not only irresponsible on the part of the police hierarchy, but it also shows a disregard for people’s dignity at the highest levels. SARS men routinely mount road checks at will, preying on young men and women, with no identifiable agenda other than to extort.
Worse than being openly humiliated, sometimes in full view of one’s family and children, people are being indiscriminately arrested by the unit. Many have been ‘arrested’ by SARS in circumstances closer to abduction, and are never heard of again. If they are not killed in transit, they are taken to crammed holding cells, where they are tortured and most likely killed, especially if there are no witnesses to their ‘abduction’.
Each and every SARS facility in any state is dreaded. The SARS headquarters in Abuja, known as the “abattoir”, is one of these. Apparently sited on what used to be an actual abattoir, the place has kept with the spirit and letter of that name through the deadly excesses of the men of SARS there. Close neighbours report gunshots in the dead of night, as in most other SARS bases, like Akwuzu SARS in Anambra and many others.
The arrest in Kaduna of one of the top campaigners calling for the end of SARS just last week struck fear into his colleagues, friends and family who took to social media to create awareness about his arrest. He was eventually released, probably because of the quick attention drawn to his plight. Nobody wants to think of what would have become of him, had no one been aware, after he was chained by the hands and feet and spirited to the abattoir in Abuja.
It is a wonder what percentage of SARS time is spent actually fighting violent armed robbers. Their impunity is based on an assumption that they have a license to kill and inflict unreserved brutality and they say as much. Where do they get this idea from?
In many instances, SARS men display an unmistakeable ignorance of their duty. They hound smartly dressed young men, in good cars or even on foot and invade their phones and personal gadgets. People that have identified themselves with ID cards have had them broken and dismissed as fake without even a cursory investigation. Every young man is a “yahoo boy” and young woman a prostitute, by the SARS playbook. The men are stripped of their cash or taken to ATM points to drain their accounts, while unfortunate women are raped.
The men of the unit have also been used to settle personal scores. The efficacy of this strategy is ensured by their indiscipline and propensity for violence. One man reportedly sent SARS men after his girlfriend in a squabble over a car he gifted her. The “special” in the name of the unit has been rubbished by their common violence and indiscipline.
The stories are sickening, not only by the horrors described but by the sheer number of stories. By the accounts, without any research, it seems that one in every three Nigerian has been humiliated and extorted by men of SARS or knows someone who has been so shabbily treated. It is a wonder what percentage of SARS time is spent actually fighting violent armed robbers. Their impunity is based on an assumption that they have a license to kill and inflict unreserved brutality and they say as much. Where do they get this idea from?
foraminifera
In the midst of all the uproar, the police has denied these claims in a farcical response. Jimoh Moshood, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) and the force public relations officer, was on TV recently pointing fingers and accusing campaigners of political motivation, while denying the excesses of SARS. The reports are not new. Amnesty International released a report on SARS three years ago, detailing many of these same claims.
Books have been written on SARS and police excesses by some of the voices now calling for action, at least, a decade ago. To claim that the horror stories are untrue is insulting. The re-organisation of the unit now announced by the present inspector general of police has been tried before, most recently in 2015. Many of the SARS men need to be dismissed or reshuffled into positions where they do not deal directly with the public, to make way for scrapping the unit.
Veteran police officers often claim that the disposition of the public towards policemen usually leads to some of these cases. The truth is that there is no excuse for the treatment of the public that SARS men resort to. What level of defiance from a member of the public can justify taking him/her to the ATM point to clear his account? The fact is that these SARS men have no moral or professional compass and the public is sick of their rudderless menace.
The menace of SARS is domestic institutional terror and it seems that there is no level of reorganisation that can take away the stigma. These are the things that the Senate and the Presidency ought to bear in mind in considering this matter going forward.
Perhaps, the saddest part of the issue is that these men wear their notorious reputation like a badge while engaging the public. One is expected to be in fear when one encounters the group. Any show of confidence or frustration will most likely end badly for an unsuspecting member of the public.
The menace of SARS is domestic institutional terror and it seems that there is no level of reorganisation that can take away the stigma. These are the things that the Senate and the Presidency ought to bear in mind in considering this matter going forward.
The institutional approach to crime fighting is also to blame for the excesses of SARS. The police depends too much on reputation and not on efficacy to achieve its objectives. Outside of SARS, the mobile police unit popularly called “MOPOL” has its own reputation. Although not as lawless as SARS, their existence is more hinged on reputation for ruthlessness than for their efficacy. Same goes for teams code-named “Operation this and that” that now litter everywhere in many of the states of the country.
The time has come for the police to wake up to their responsibility of protecting the public through efficient monitoring and intelligence gathering rather than a brutal reputation which can get out of hand, as in the case of SARS. Years of lawlessness cannot be reorganised away. It has become a lifestyle and the office/unit that facilitates that lifestyle needs to be scrapped as a matter of urgency.
Allowing armed men in plain clothes or faint SARS jackets without any personal identification to roam about and freely engage the public was always going to go badly. A situation where these men have built a deadly reputation and are still allowed to operate openly is irresponsible policing. This has to end now.
For comments SMS (only) to: 08058354382