A former lawmaker at the National Assembly who represented Kaduna central at the eight Senate, Senator Shehu Sani, says banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism in the north is never a justification for retaining SARS.
Shehu Sani explained that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has never proven to be an effective and reliable force in confronting, containing, or combating acts of criminalities.
The human rights activist, while reacting to some residents of Borno state on his verified Twitter handle who took to the streets to protest the disbandment of SARS. He tweeted that the pro-SARS protesters are Alsatians of the system.
According to Shehu Sani, “the dissolution of SARS; a victory for all the voices of courage who spoke and stood in the defense of the freedom, rights, and Justice for all Nigerians.
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“A genuine democracy must always balance its security exigencies with its obligations to respect the constitutional rights of its people,” he twitted.
Meanwhile, some residents of Kaduna state, have expressed displeasure over the swapping of SARS to Special Weapon and Tactics (SWAT), saying that it is a method of bringing back the same product in a different brand.
One of the residents who spoke on the issue with Businessday, Oluwatobi Adeleke, said, the swapping will still take the nation back to square one of police brutality.
He opined that holistic reform of the security architecture should be the priority of the Nigerian government than swapping from SARS to SWAT.
In his reaction, Yunus Yahaya said SARS to SWAT is a problem changing the name, while the problem remains.
” To me, Nigeria’s SWAT may actually be next- level SARS,” Yahaya explained.
He also called for a total reform of the Nigerian security architecture; from Police to Army, Navy, and other security agencies.
