#EndSARS: UK Replies Kanu, Denies Funding Disbanded Squad
The United Kingdom has reacted to a recent comment credited to the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, regarding the funding of the disbanded Special Anti-Roberry Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force.
Kanu, in a tweet on Friday, asked whether the UK had been financing the now scrapped police unit amid the alleged human rights violations by some of its personnel.
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“Does it mean United Kingdom knowingly funded the notorious #SARS unit in Nigeria? Troubling!,” he tweeted.
His tweet followed a letter written by a British Parliamentarian, Kate Osamor, to the UK’ Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab.
She had in the letter stated that among other things, “there is a high risk that the NCA is providing support to units implicated in the abuses I’ve mentioned above.”
“Today I have written to the Foreign Secretary @DominicRaab asking him to urgently confirm that no development spending has found its way into SARs units in Nigeria, or any other units in Nigeria responsible for corruption and abuses,” she tweeted on Thursday, floating her letter.
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But, in a reactionary tweet to Kanu on Friday, the British High Commission in Nigeria denied funding the SARS unit.
“No it doesn’t and no we haven’t,” it tweeted.
Despite the widespread protests against police brutality, many Nigerians are calling for reforms.
On its part, the Force had pledged to transform its unit to reflect the yearnings of Nigerians.
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