SARS Again!!!!!

SARS again?

Broniupdate.com

IN  the past few weeks, the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has again been in the news for the wrong reasons. As if impervious to public outrage over its endless atrocities, the outfit has recently engaged in acts of brutality and lawlessness, killing and maiming innocent citizens. For instance, in an incident that has brought the attracted widespread opprobrium, SARS personnel arrested and tortured a Taxify driver, John Otuchere, for allegedly stealing a bag belonging to one Mrs Alice Isah, only to later establish his innocence.  Isah, who came back into the country from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on July 15, had reportedly called the Taxify driver to pick her up from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and drop her off at her residence on Lekki Gardens Estate, Lagos State. However, the car developed a fault on the Third Mainland Bridge and had to be attended to by a roadside mechanic. But the story changed drastically at Isah’s residence where she discovered that one of her bags had gone missing.

Otuechere suggested a return to the airport, but Isah would have none of that. She involved men of the SARS unit and he was beaten to stupor, his fingers broken with an iron bar to induce confession in her presence. Otuchere said: “SARS cell is a graphic picture of hell; I saw over 70 people inside one room and immediately I entered, I was welcomed with several blows, slaps and kicks…When my lawyer saw my condition, she was annoyed with the officers for torturing me without investigation. She insisted that they should search for the bag at the airport, so a policeman went there with my sister. I was told that the bag was found at the airport.”

In trying to defend herself, Isah stated that she only reported the case to SARS because she urgently needed her bag. “I don’t know how to explain how I felt when I saw the bag at the airport. I did not torture him.” However, as revealed by the  Lagos State Police Public Relation Officer, CSP Chike Oti, “Before investigation into the case could start, the complainant in the case moved it to another level of police investigation, which is SARS.” Although Oti insisted that Otuchere was not tortured by SARS, pictures published in the media told a different story. In any case, according to him, “Through diligent investigation by the F-SARS team, the missing bag was recovered. The Taxify driver was subsequently released on administrative bail.” But why throw the driver in a cell before carrying out this “diligent investigation?” And what was the point about “administrative bail” for an innocent driver? Indeed, what happened to the complainant who wrongly accused Otuchere of stealing? And how about an apology for wrongful detention?

Sadly, appalling as the Otuchere story is, it pales into insignificance when the tragedy in Gombe State, where some SARS officials allegedly beat a young man named Emmanuel to death after he was accused of stealing a phone belonging to the girlfriend of a SARS personnel, is considered. Alas, the phone was reportedly later found somewhere else. In another incident, the killing of an unnamed 18-year-old by SARS personnel attracted outrage on the internet. A soldier had, in a tweet, lamented: “While I was busy fighting for the peace of my country, SARS were busy torturing my cousin till death (sic). I think I am done with this country…What are we fighting for when the lives of our loved ones are not safe?” In case the SARS men themselves have missed the point, there is serious trouble when young, serving military personnel give up on their country.

It is indeed distressing that in spite of the outcry by Nigerians and the persistent advocacy by members of the #EndSARS movement that the outfit be scrapped, SARS personnel have continued to carry on as if they were a law unto themselves. They extort and kill without the slightest provocation. They force hapless citizens to withdraw money for them at Automated Teller Machine (ATM) points, an act which borders on the very armed robbery that they were set up to counter. Besides, it is fair to ask why SARS personnel seem to be obsessed with internet fraudsters. Is that their brief and do the country’s laws prescribe summary executions for internet fraud? Are they the court of law? In flagrant violation of fundamental human rights and the law, they routinely stop and search young people carrying backpacks; they demand for people’s phones and search the applications on them to determine if they are fraudsters. Surely, there can be no better time than now to overhaul the outfit.

Happily, however, there is some positive news on the horizon, at least in Lagos State where the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Imohimi Edgal, has been treating cases of SARS and police brutality and corruption in general with the seriousness that they deserve. Indeed, this is the kind of attitude that is required to curb the excesses of SARS nationwide. When SARS personnel know that they will be severely punished for breaking the law, they would sit up. We urge the police authorities to overhaul the outfit and force its personnel to abide by the law, or face santions. The trail of sorrow, tears and blood left in the wake of SARS operations nationwide needs to be stemmed before anarchy breaks loose and the centre no longer holds.

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