The disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS has made a comeback in Owerri, the capital of Imo State.
This reappearance of the police unit disbanded for its horrible human rights record follows claims by the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali that crime has heightened because of the disbandment of the unit.
The police boss, has however, used the crisis in Imo as a test ground for the reappearance of the unit as they have begun arresting and harassing residents of the Owerri.
Some residents of Owerri who spoke to Standardobservers in confidence said men dressed in SARS uniform have been seen arresting, harassing and humiliating innocent residents and taking them to Abuja to be detained.
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA on Sunday called on the National Assembly to summon the IGP over the reappearance of the disbanded unit.
Reacting, HURIWA, in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, said it wonders why the National Assembly did not bother to investigate the findings.
The statement reads, “We are asking the National Assembly to summon the Inspector-General of Police to explain to Nigerians why he decided to unban SARS which was banned with the authorisation of President Muhammadu Buhari following widespread allegations of professional misconduct against the operatives including the extensive use of extralegal execution against detainees in the custody of the Nigerian police force.
“It is therefore incongruous and unacceptable that the security forces sent to the South East and South-South have continuously breached the fundamental human rights of the Igbo/Niger Delta youths and are arbitrarily arresting, detaining and using extrajudicial executions as tactics of law enforcement.
“Now the innocent youths wrongly arrested and detained in the harshest of conditions in the notoriously uninhabitable cells of the defunct Special Anti Robbery Squad in Abuja are subjected to the ordeals of extortion and psychological and physical torture all in an efforts to get their relatives to part with huge amounts as bribes for bail. This is totally primitive and despicable”.
