Updated: Northern Governors Kick Against Dissolution Of SARS

– Lalong Claims Offences Against Squad, Generalised

Northern State Governors said on Thursday that they were against the recent dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad by the Federal Government.

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While protests tore through the country over the human rights abuses attributed to the disbanded squad, the governors said the unit made valuable contribution to the fight against insecurity in the North.

Speaking with State House Correspondents in Abuja, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong, insisted that SARS was useful to the region.

He had visited the State House to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari.

The governor argued that not all operatives in the unit were bad, hence the idea of disbanding the entire squad was not welcomed by the forum.

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Lalong claimed that what the unit needed was reformation and not dissolution.

However, he deferred to the fact that Buhari had already approved the dissolution.

He also observed that there was division across the country on the status of SARS, a reason the federal government came under pressure to act in a manner it felt was best for the nation.

The governor said his mission to the Villa was to praise Buhari for giving his nod to the take off of community policing across the Federation.

Lalong also reacted to the ongoing protests by youths demanding police reforms and spoke elaborately on the position of the northern governors.

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He said, “We had a meeting yesterday (Wednesday), the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF). I’m sure my chairman addressed the press. When we see issues like this, because most of the complaints vary from one state to the other.

“In one aspect, some people said they don’t want SARS, some said they want SARS but a reformed SARS. They want a reformed SARS because as far as they are concerned, some of these SARS operatives help them in addressing insecurity. If there are bad ones, holistically, bring them together and reform them. Then, you work for them.

“So, our opinion and conclusion at that stage was that let us not just say that we are throwing away the baby with bath water. If there are good ones, you don’t chase them away. So, as SARS is banned, we are now looking forward to…because most of the states in the North said no. They want SARS because SARS helps them.

“Borno (State governor) said without SARS, he would not have been surviving today. Niger also wants SARS. So, if you are addressing this issue of SARS, you need to know what is wrong in some places. Is it the process of recruitment? Is it the character of the people? You can’t say because somebody is wrong, everybody is wrong in the country.

“These are some of the issues we concluded yesterday. And It’s for the Chairman to go and meet Mr President to still look at this issue holistically and critically so that we understand where we are going.

“On a whole, we all agreed that there must be general reform within the police. But you can’t do general reform without proper funding. You must address the issue of proper funding so that they don’t say government is responsible for lack of funding and we attack them for non-performance of their duties. I’m sure our Chairman will meet Mr President. We all went back that everybody should go back and address the issue in his State. Because in some of the States, you find that people moving people to do protest are people from other states.

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“But, the in real sense, some of the things are not even happening in our state or they are very minimal. If there are complaints that people are coming outside, let’s not begin to generalise it or we will miss the point. Let’s address it and find out if in those environment, things are happening like this, we must go back.

Lalong argued that like coronavirus, there had been attempts to “generalise” the alleged wrongdoings of SARS to create the impression that they happened everywhere.

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