On the disbandment of SARS
It is within the right of every Nigerian, guaranteed constitutionally, to rally against a policy that is at variance with public interest. This time, it is the conduct of the SARS operatives (now rested with IGPs pronouncement) that had got many citizens talking and resulted in mass protest that turned violent in parts of the country.
As a Nigerian, a critical review of the operations of men of one of the tactical units of the Police over the years revealed a number of killings extra-judicially. There shouldn’t be any contention for a call to bring those who perpetrated extra-judicial killings among the operatives to book to nip such abominable act in the board on one hand, and to serve as deterrent on another.
However, in as much as the agitation to abolish the SARS, a unit carved out of the Police Force was justified (with the spontaneous response of the police hierarchy), we must not, on account of blackmail, turn blind eye to certain realities, which are likely to haunt us in the long run.
How many of us know that the public protest against SARS provided questionable characters among us an opportunity to also join the well-intentioned agitation all in a bid to cover their tracks. In the protest, you wouldn’t be surprised to see cyber criminals, armed bandits and criminally minded individuals, who dubiously leveraged on the advantage to end extra-judicial killings in our society.
The rampancy of the unwholesome practice from the (now former) detachment of the police cannot be divorced from the police as an institution itself. We have had series of instances where trigger-happy uniformed men shoot at armless civilians indiscriminately with no comeuppance.
From the whole scenario, the protesters or agitators as the case maybe have only succeeded in curing ringworm in place of leprosy. Instead of seeking total overhaul of the Police as a structure, we are blinded to see only SARS men as our oppressors. What about those (uniformed men) who entertain commercial motorists with hot slap on the roads daily with little or no provocation? What about those who intimidate defenceless citizens at will only because they bear arms?
Though the Police High Command may have succumbed to the pressure and attendant heat from the citizens, why don’t we collectively clamour for a comprehensive clean sweep in the operations of the Nigerian Police Force as an institution so as to make the agitation all encompassing?
This is my own intervention. May be we may derive some senses from it.
