SARS Won’t Be Scrapped – Okiro

The chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mike Okiro, says the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) “needs to be restructured and not scrapped completely”.

Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust on Friday, Okiro said he was part of those that formed SARS and scrapping the unit now will be not be good for the police, as robbers won’t be stopped.

According to him, SARS started around 1991 when Shina Rambo, a notorious armed robber, ruled the criminal world.

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Okiro explained that at its inception, SARS was saddled with the responsibility of tackling robbery attacks and bringing them to book, but its operatives deviated and took up investigative duties.

“There was no way to stop him. So, I and the then commissioner, Ademola, came up with the special anti-robbery squad,” he said.

“The initial idea of the operatives wearing mufti, like I said, is for the element of surprise. So I’d say the original idea of SARS has been bastardised. The squad was feared before, and I mean by criminals. When there was a robbery in a bank, SARS would move there because they were trained. They also knew themselves because there was nothing like cross-firing. Every command had SARS standing by.

“But by the time it spread to other states, it seemed like anyone would be carrying arms, dressed in mufti, with a T-shirt with SARS emblazoned on it. Anybody can wear such an outfit. They even go into cases of bounced cheques and shady business transactions. SARS business is not to investigate, but to hit. It’s a special anti-robbery squad, not an investigative one.”

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“We cannot throw away the bathwater with the baby. It cannot be scrapped, rather there is the need to get back to its original concept, to hit robbers and come back. Sometimes robbers take position, waiting for police patrol vehicles to come, not knowing that SARS are passing in a private vehicle. SARS needs to be restructured and not scrapped completely.”

Following allegations of brutality by SARS operatives, the call for the scrapping of the unit have grown across the country.

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