Nigeria’s Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on Sunday banned the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, FSARS, and other tactical squads of the force, including the Special Tactical Squad, STS, Intelligence Response Team, IRT, Anti-Cultism Squad and others operating at the federal, zonal and command levels from carrying out stop-and-search patrols.
They were also banned from carrying out such activities as mounting of checkpoints and roadblocks, traffic checks.
The ban took immediate effect, Police authorities announced.
These measures were announced on Sunday in a statement by Deputy Commissioner of Policy and Police Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba.
The ban came against the backdrop of increasing cases of extra-judicial killing of Nigerians by the men and officers of the FSARS, under the guise of carrying out routine checks.
“In addition, no personnel of the force is authorized to embark on patrols or tactical assignments in mufti. The personnel of the units must always appear in their police uniforms or approved tactical gear,” Mba said.
“The IGP’s directives come against the backdrop of findings by the leadership of the force that a few personnel of the tactical squads hide under these guise to perpetrate all forms of illegality, contrary to the Standard Operating Procedure, SOP, code of conduct and rules of engagement establishing the squads.
“Specifically, the IGP has warned the tactical squads against the invasion of the privacy of citizens, particularly through indiscriminate and unauthorized search of mobile phones, laptops and other smart devices.
“They are to concentrate and respond only to cases of armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes when the need arises. “The IGP notes that the FSARS and other police tactical squads remain a critical component of the force in confronting prevailing and emerging violent crimes in the country.
“He, however, condemns every act of unprofessionalism, abuse of human rights and high-handedness by some personnel of the squads. He has, therefore, ordered the X-Squad and the monitoring unit to embark on immediate and massive nationwide monitoring of activities of tactical squads and other police officers on the road. “They are to ensure prompt arrest, investigation and prosecution of all erring police officers who violate these directives and other extant regulations of the force,” Mba added.
Facts emerged later that the order by the IGP followed interventions by Nigerian leaders- President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and other political leaders, who were irked by the reckless killings by the officers from the unit.
“The IGP has equally warned that, henceforth, the Commissioner of Police in charge of FSARS, Commissioners of Police in charge of state commands and the FCT as well as their supervisory Zonal Assistant Inspectors General of Police will be held liable for any misconduct within their area of responsibility, AOR.
“He, therefore, charged them to ensure effective supervision and mentoring of the personnel of the tactical squads under their jurisdiction. Nabbed FSARS operatives ‘’.
On his part, the Vice President expressed sadness over the rising wave of attacks on Nigerians by the SARS operatives.
“I am very concerned and in fact sometimes angry about what I see happening to young men and women, who are arrested, and in some cases, maimed or killed by men of the police force; in some cases, those who man tactical units of the police force such as SARS and other units,” he said Sunday while addressing State House correspondents in Abuja.
“It is completely objectionable. It is unacceptable. These are individuals who are meant to protect Nigerians. The arrest, maiming, killing of young people or of anyone at all by these individuals is completely wrong. It is unlawful. It is illegal and all those involved ought to be investigated and prosecuted,” he said..
“This afternoon, I had a meeting with the IG of Police. We reviewed several of these issues. The President and I had had discussions on this. He is very concerned about this and he wants to see a reform of this process and I am sure you are probably aware that the IG has issued a statement, looking at all these issues, in particular, warning against the use of these tactical forces such as SARS for the purposes of anything other than anti-bribery as it is supposed to be.
“For example, in the statement, he specifically said that we can’t have a situation where SARS will say they are investigating cybercrime and arresting young men and women who are carrying laptops and their phones.
“Cybercrime is an electronic crime. There is no way that you can investigate that by seizing people’s phones in a taxi. I think it is very obvious that this is a major concern. The few bag eggs within the police force are causing a lot of these.
“You cannot say that because you belong to a tactical unit, you can dress in your casual clothing and be armed, because people can’t even tell the difference between robbers and the police; if you are not properly dressed in police uniform. So, clearly, a reform is in the offing,” he said.
