SARS: The Untold Story ~ Nigerian News >> 30/01/2018

There is no doubt, policing is a complex job the world over. This is mainly because each action the police personnel take at any point in time attracts diverse interpretations by distinctive individuals.

Police are also part of organizations in the world that have far more enemies than mates. In truth, a pal to the police these days may possibly tomorrow develop into the enemy for the reason that of vested interest.

The recent campaign in the social media calling for the scrapping of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the Nigeria Police Force, has attracted mixed feelings. This is mainly because, even though quite a few other individuals have had sour encounter with personnel of the unit, other individuals or their relations have, at a single time or the other, been rescued from either kidnappers or deadly armed robbers by the officers of the SARS unit.

SARS is a special unit of the Nigeria Police Force which was especially designed to combat violent crimes.

SARS, according to a lot of, has over the years, performed excellently well as it has assisted in arresting some notorious criminals in various components of the country.

Just as there is no ideal human institution or individual, one cannot deny the reality that SARS also has some bad elements who have acted more than time beyond their line of responsibility.

The question though is, should we throw away the child with the bath water? Or should we, because some pretty few officers have misbehaved, not bear in mind the good aspect of the unit, hence, scrap it ?

It is instructive to note that the identical SARS quite a few individuals are calling for it to be scrapped was instrumental to the arrest of most of the notorious criminals in numerous components of the country.

For instance, from time to time last year, two suspected notorious armed robbers terrorising and robbing residents of Ire Akari street, Ejigbo and Isolo regions of Lagos, snatching and vandalising vehicles in the region for extended, have been arrested by operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) in Adeniji Adele Road, Lagos Island. This, no doubt, brought a sigh of relief to residence of the location.

Similarly, in 2015, due to the unabated activities of cultists and other violent crimes, which includes kidnapers and armed robbers in Edo State, the IGP Idris, dispatched a unique crack squad comprising SARS officers to the state to tackle the scenario. The situation was, handful of days right after, brought below handle.

On the other hand, the arrest of over three,000 suspected kidnappers due to the fact the assumption of office of the IGP, a single year ago, is largely due to the efforts of SARS operatives.

In reality, the recent successes recorded in decreasing the higher price of crime and criminality, especially kidnapping and other deadly vices in most components of the country, is largely the handiwork of SARS operatives.

Also, the arrest of the notorious kidnappers that terrorised the nation for extra than 6 years, popularly known as Henry Chibueze a.k.a Vampire and Onwumadike Chukwudumeme a.k.a Evans, was accomplished following the ingenuity and gallantry displayed by the SARS unit of the Force.

Couple of months ago, the Abuja-Kaduna Highway became a danger zone as kidnappers and armed robbers virtually took over the road. Many prominent Nigerians had been kidnapped and robbed on that axis.

The story has develop into various now due to the fact of the immense contribution of SARS operatives who have been drafted to that highway. Also, circumstances of cattle rustling that had brought on significant panic amongst Fulani herdsmen have been reduced to the barest minimum due to the fact of the tireless efforts of SARS they have also recovered thousands of cows from criminals and returned them to the owners.

Security professionals are of the consensus that the drastic reduction in the price of armed robbery and kidnapping in all components of the nation in current times is creditable to intense activities of the SARS.

It is, having said that, vital to pressure that in spite of the shortcomings of the really couple of disgruntled SARS operatives, they will need the encouragement, prayer and the help of all Nigerians to do a lot more.

It is pertinent to remind Nigerians that most of these SARS operatives stay awake in bushes and risky locations to safe the nation. Most of them, in truth, devote much more than three months without having seeing their households and generating other individual sacrifices to make Nigerians sleep with the two eyes closed.

Rather than castigating them, labelling them all manner of names and calling for their scrapping, Nigerians will need to discover avenues of supporting the Nigeria Police Force with constructive advice and ideas, to make the unit superior.

It is also relevant to say that not all the alleged incorrect doings attributed to the SARS personnel are truly committed by them. In reality, many bad components have been arrested in recent instances for impersonating or claiming to be SARS personnel.