Groups: IGP Measures Overhauling SARS, too Cosmetic to Deliver Real Change

Human Rights Advocacy Groups, Access to Justice and Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN), have expressed concern about the new measures taken by Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to reform the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), saying that such measures will not deliver any sustainable change.

The Groups, in a statement issued and signed by Joseph Otteh, Director, Access to Justice and Okechukwu Nwanguma, National Coordinator, NOPRIN last week, stated that the IG’s measure are ‘’too little, too short, and too cosmetic, to deliver real change’’.

“After a review of the IGP’s new “overhaul” order, A2Justice is convinced that, the measures come too short, and do not go far enough of what is needed to reform SARS”, the groups stated.

Acting President Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, had on July 14, directed the Inspector General, to immediately overhaul the management and activities of SARS, by ensuring that it becomes an intelligence-driven unit, restricted to the prevention and detection of armed robbery, kidnapping, apprehension of offenders linked to the stated offences, and nothing more.

Osinbajo, also directed that any new unit emerging from SARS, ‘’must’’ conduct its operations in strict adherence to the rule of law and observance of human rights.

While the two groups are full of praises for the intervention of the Acting President, they however, expressed regret that it took this length of time, for Nigeria’s leadership to rise to the occasion and act.

“SARS, established in 1992 with the mandate of combating armed robbery and other related crimes, quickly garnered notoriety for brutal violations of human rights - arbitrary arrests and detention, sexual harassment, barefaced extortions, torture and extrajudicial killings. The Presidential intervention, was therefore, a long overdue, but, a welcome development.

“In compliance to the Acting President’s order, the IGP has ordered the immediate overhauling of SARS nationwide, changing its nomenclature, its commanders and structure. He also promises a new set of “Standard Operational Guidelines and Procedures, and Code of Conduct for all FSARS personnel”. However, all of this is mostly a rehash of old, draft policy. Late last year, the IGP had promised that the SARS unit would be revamped, announcing measures similar to the ones he has now outlined, but the promised changes did not materialise, and SARS personnel continued to prowl the Nigerian landscape with accustomed impunity.

But according to the Groups, “the measures first of all appear like a knee-jerk reaction to the Presidential directive, having been announced just on the heels of the directive. Such speed, does not provide evidence of thoughtful reflection, sober deliberation, wide and strategic consultation on an issue of such huge public importance. The IGP over-sped on the response, in a way that questioned his genuineness of purpose.

“There are no measures of accountability for unlawful actions, proposed in the new policies. The IGP offers the public, communication channels for reporting grievances against FSARS, but did not commit the Police Force to ensuring that every complaint made against FSARS operatives, will be promptly and fairly investigated, and where substantiated, result in a definite outcome.

“This is a major anomaly, that has contributed to the sustained culture of impunity within the Police Force, and must be addressed simultaneously with efforts to reform the Police Force. In many parts of the world, external oversights like the PSC, are crucial to seeing that Police services are delivered in a professional, ethical and accountable manner, but Nigeria’s case has been unfortunately different’’, the Groups stated.

A2Justice and NOPRIN urged the Acting President, to give directives that push the PSC into more active gear, to justify its existence, and play its part in reforming Nigeria’s Police Force, into a truly democratic institution.

They also called on the IGP, to go back to the drawing board, and fashion a new, more embracing and inspiring set of reforms, for SARS.