Protests against police brutality in the West African country have finally paid off after the anti-robbery unit of the police force was dissolved
Nigeria national team players have expressed their delight after Nigeria’s Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) was dissolved following protests against their actions.
SARS have been accused of extortion, harassment and murder of many Nigerian youths and a number of football stars including Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil, Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, and Super Eagles captain Ahmed Musa joined the protest.
The Presidency, subsequently, announced the dissolution of the unit on Sunday evening and promised to replace it with a new arrangement.
“Presidential directive: The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force has been dissolved with immediate effect,” read a tweet from the Nigeria Presidency.
“A new policing arrangement to address anticipated policing gaps the dissolution of SARS will cause is being worked on and will be announced by the Nigeria police.”
Nigeria’s Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, also released a statement re-affirming SARS’ dissolution, which was circulated by the spokesperson, Frank Mba.
“In the finest spirit of democratic, citizen-centred and community policing, the Inspector-General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has today, 11th October, 2020, dissolved the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) across the 36 State Police Commands and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where they hitherto existed,”Mba said in the statement.
“The IGP, while noting that the dissolution of SARS is in response to the yearnings of the Nigerian people, observes that by this dissolution, all officers and men of the now-defunct Special Anti-robbery Squad are being redeployed with immediate effect.”
Super Eagles stars Leon Balogun, Shehu Abdullahi, Victor Osimhen and William Troost-Ekong have reacted to the decision.