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#EndSARS Movement Asks Nigerian Govt To Scrap Anti-Robbery, Anti-Cultism, Anti-Kidnapping Squads

The group, which held a protest across the country on Friday, is also asking for the scrapping of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SACS) and Special Anti-Kidnapping Squad (SAKS), asserting that other unit of the Police can take care of their responsibilities.

The #EndSARS Reform Police movement has continued to put more pressure on the Nigeria Police Force to curb extrajudicial activities by its personnel.

In a statement signed by Segun Awosanya, the group stated that personnel of the force must at all times respect the “sanctity of life and the lives of all Nigerians”.

The EndSARS group also maintained that the Police have been acting outside the law, leading to the killing of Nigerians by a different unit of the police.

“Our lives — the lives of all citizens — matter and we must continue to demand that men and women of the Police Force respect the sanctity of life and the lives of all Nigerians," read the statement.

“When our country is saddled with a Police Force that operates outside the bounds of law, without operational restraints — the culture of impunity, spawned by such inhuman chants of police officers like 'I will kill you and nothing will happen' and 'I must kill someone today', what we get are not only killer squads that reign supreme but a Police Force that have gone rogue, killing and maiming defenceless citizens.”

The group, which held a protest across the country on Friday, is also asking for the scrapping of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SACS) and Special Anti-Kidnapping Squad (SAKS), asserting that other unit of the Police can take care of their responsibilities.

“In light of the foregoing, therefore, we restate that all ad hoc squads within the Police Force be scrapped and their responsibilities transferred to discernible structures within Police Force.

“For clarity, the Federal Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (FCIID), with its concomitant substructure at the level of the States Police Commands (SCIID), can adequately take care of the responsibilities of SARS and other hybrid squads, as it was in the past.

“This particular demand, among other demands, is driven by the insistence that our country and its security forces place a premium on the lives of citizens, particularly the youth who have become the target practices of the menacing operatives of the killer squads of the Police Force.”

The EndSARS Reform Police movement is demanding compensation for families of those killed by men of the police force as well as new operational guidelines for the Police.

“We demand as follows: that the Police Force and the Federal Government MUST pay monetary compensation to all families of citizens felled by its rogue operatives; the Attorney General of the Federation must ensure the criminal prosecution of police officers named in the killings of Nigerians; that all killer squads of the Police Force be scrapped and their responsibilities transferred to proper structures within the police.

“That new and updated operational guidelines on the use of arms which respect the right to life as preserved by the 1999 Constitution be issued; the 8th National Assembly (Senate) MUST AS A MATTER OF UTMOST URGENCY pass the Police Reform Bill 2018 and transmit same to the President; President Muhammadu Buhari MUST ASSENT TO AND SIGN the Police Reform Bill 2018 into law without delay and without the antics of rejection that have attended bills in recent times.”

Nigerians are demanding a reform of the Police Force or scrapping of SARS and SAKS after their personnels have been involved in extrajudicial killings of Nigerians.

Some of those who have suffered death in the hands of the rogue officers are: Emeka Ojinze (23), Linda Angela Igwetu (23), Richard Peter Gora (22), Sofiyat Yekin (23), Mrs Kudirat, Anita Akapson, Kolade JOHNSON (36), Ademola Moshood (the motorcycle rider who was killed over N200).