Jennifer Ugwueke
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has assured Nigerians that the training of a new police unit to take over from the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) will commence next week.
Adamu gave the assurance when pop artiste, David Adeleke aka Davido, visited him in his office on Monday, October 12 over the ongoing #EndSARS protests. For over 72 hours, Nigerians youths nationwide have taken to the streets calling for the disbandment of SARS.
The IGP responded by banning the dreaded police unit, but protesters say they doubt the police authorities sincerity.
Speaking to Davido, IGP Adamu said with SARS being disbanded, there was a need to get a new structure to carry out the duties the defunct police unit was carrying out, which is fighting violent crimes.
He said the new outfit would be intelligence-driven, properly trained and only act on special occasions that require their attention. He said the unit would be made up of fresh personnel with a fresh orientation and not officers from the scrapped unit. He said opportunities would be created for members of the public to participate in and make inputs to the formation of the new unit. IGP Adamu further said this was the first time they have decisively taken to dissolve SARS and called for calm as they continue to resolve all the issues.
“I’m talking to you so I will keep talking to many others and get civil societies involved and get their input towards the new unit.” He said officers of the disbanded unit would be retrained and given other responsibilities in the force, but will not be reabsorbed into the new unit.