Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere – Martin Luther King
With tears running down his cheeks like that of a baby, grief and pain evident on his face I wondered what could make a grown man cry publicly because men don’t cry in Africa. He said “ I lived in the north for up to twelve years I never lost a finger, I came back here only for somebody to waste my son, there was no war, fighting or riot it’s not like the boy was involved in any fracas or he stole, just cold-bloodedly they wasted this boy for me O! God avenge this boy……” a father who just lost his son to police brutality lamented.
The history of SARS. It happens to be that the acronym SARS stands for two different things which do not ring well to Nigerians and the world at large, while one means severe acute respiratory syndrome the other means the special anti-robbery squad. The Special anti robbery squad is a branch of the Nigeria police force under the force criminal investigation and intelligence department ( FCCID). It was founded in 1992 by police commissioner Simeon Danladi Midenda. The major reason SARS was formed was as a result of the killing a Nigerian Army Colonel, Col Rindam at a police check point in Lagos. The army waged war on the police and the police went into hiding thereby making crimes be on the rise. SARS was formed with just 15 officers operating in the shadow without the knowledge of the army. SARS is one of the 14 units in the force criminal investigation and intelligence department which was established to detain, investigate and prosecute people involved in crimes like arm robbery, kidnapping and other forms of crime.
SARS now.
This evil going on in our country stares right in our faces, not one week will pass without news of how this unit of the police force has either sent a citizen to his or her early grave or have brutally handled another. I shudder at the lack of value for human lives by the SARS officials. The target of these SARS officials are the youth and when the youth of a country suffers negatively it sets the country behind .These sets of people who are meant to secure and protect lives and properties end up doing the opposite.Their Crime range from robbery, extortion, rape, car snatching, torture blackmail, murder, framing etc. Going online will avail you the opportunity to read plethora of stories of how inhumane SARS can be . A routine stop and search turns out to be an avenue for harassment and extortion from Nigerians. To make matters worse they are most times not answerable to these crimes neither are they brought to book. Endless complains are filed but next to nothing is been done about it.
What has the government done?
The worst type of Injustice is pretended justice – Plato.
Since the year 2012 the special anti-robbery squad(SARS) had being connected to cases of extortion, torture, framing and blackmail. In December 2016 Segun Awosanya started the ENDSARS campaign on social media and it went viral with Nigerians sharing their stories. The federal government had promised a reform on SARS during the year 2015,2017, 2018,2019 and 2020 . Although in the year 2018 the acting president Prof. Yemi Osibanjo made a reform on this unit of police by putting up different roles and thereby renamed it FSARS, meaning federal special anti-robbery squad which as far as I know that act can be likened to the pouring of water on a rock. As far as am concerned from the past years the federal government has done nothing but lip service to the pleas and cries from Nigerians. This leaves me wondering if the government has our best interest at heart at all.
To reform or to abolish
Nothing is as dangerous as power with impunity – Isabel Allende
One of the steps in moving ahead is to acknowledge the fact that you have a problem and the next is doing something about it with immediate effect. In my honest opinion, I suggest whatever that can be done to stop this impunity is what works best for me. Though I’ll like to share with you an unpopular fact.Do you know one of the criteria for the recruitment into the special anti robbery squad(SARS)? You Must be an ex-convict. Now can you imagine an ex-convict who might have killed someone, fresh out of jail without any psychological, mental, and emotional counselling being in the position to yield a gun, and he tells you what or what not to do but this time he has the authority to shoot you.
Reference:
Wikipedia– ENDSARS
Wikipedia- SARS ( special anti-robbery squad)
Amnesty international
2020 latest jobs, vacancies and recruitment in Nigeria 2020- SARS recruitment
Arueze Chisom Precious, a passionate writer can be reached through sommytilly1402@gmail.com
