Last Sunday, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, announced the disbandment of Federal SARS and the 36 States as well as FCT Commands of SARS following public outrage that was getting more intense with every new day. In a bid to attend to the demands of the #EndSARS protesters, he pledged to implement certain actions that bordered on redeployment of all officers and men of SARS to other formations and units, a citizens and Strategic Stakeholders Forum, punishment of culprit as well as a new policing arrangement to tackle Armed-Robbery and other violent crimes. NETA NWOSU sought the views of Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, a human rights activist, lawyer, professor and writer on the IGP’s broadcast anchored on a five-Point agenda. Excerpts.
What are your views on the Inspector General of Police broadcast on the dissolution of SARS?
The question is would anybody believe them? The question is will anybody believe government on this occasion? For me, there’s a tremendous credibility deficit. There’s a credibility and trust deficit that is huge. Let’s even assume that everything will be on course like he announced, the question is who will believe them? Now, why do I say this? Since the unit was instituted around 2000, every inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun , Sunday Ehindero, right down to the current one has announced the disbandment of roadblock, right? It has never happened. Number two, even when every Inspector General of Police in the same system has announced the withdrawal of police processing unit from big men, it has never happened. In the past four years, SARS has been disbanded three times; it has not happened. So, don’t forget President Buhari did tell the former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to relocate to Benue State to address the problem of herdsmen, it didn’t happen.
So, there is serious evidence of a lot of announcement affecting the police and security services and law enforcement which were just announcement that ended up on the pages of newspapers, and on television bulletins and didn’t go anywhere, and that’s the biggest issue here. How do we know this will happen? Now, I tell you because again, this was announced by the Inspector General of Police and the Federal Government. When you look at the constitution of Nigeria, section, I believe section 216, it is said that the Chief of Security and Chief of Police, is the President. The President can give any instruction under the constitution. The President can give any instruction to the Inspector General of Police and he is obliged in the terms of the constitution to obey them.
The question then is, why is it the Inspector General of Police announcing and not the President? That comes not just as a legal matter, but a political matter because this issue has certainly been seen to be merely that of the institution of the police. But it’s fundamental to the safety and security of Nigerians, and that is the basic constitutional role of the President to the Federal Government and the land. So, the President is hiding, in my view, that’s the way I want to frame it. The President is in hiding, and he puts out the Inspector General of Police as a body shield, as a political shield. What then happens is that the President takes his time and all he does is sacrifice the Inspector General of Police; that is for what? I fear that this is necessary, but is it adequate or sufficient; I doubt it. Over the years, we have witnessed series of police stakeholders meeting and all forms of forums on how to address these same issues but at the end of the day, nothing happened.
The IGP during his broadcast announced that a Citizens and Strategic Stakeholders forum will be launched to provide an avenue for citizens to regularly interface and advise the police authority on issues touching on the general public. May we have your views please. Yes, nothing happened. In 2005, the Presidential Commission on Administration of Justice submitted its report. In 2006, the first Presidential Commission on the reform of Nigeria Police submitted its report. The 2005 Commission was headed by Justice Akinolu Olujinmi while Muhammadu Danmadami, former Deputy Inspector General of Police headed the Presidential Commission on Police Reform. In 2008, a second Presidential Commission on Reform of Nigeria Police Force headed by former inspector General of police MD Yusuf reported. In 2012, a third Presidential Commission on Police Reform headed by former Deputy inspector General, Parry Osayande reported; nothing has come of any of these, nothing.
The IGP also promised that investigations would be done, and the culprits will be brought to book?
And you believed that? The question is who will believe it? The issue is not a public relations issue, that’s the point, and it seems to me that what’s been done is to address it as a problem of public communication and public relations, that’s not the point. If you are not going to address this right, you are going to address it with brut and brash reexamination of policing. It starts with recruitment. In 2008, MD Yusuf Presidential Commission on police reform said the Nigerian Police Force were all criminals and thugs. What was happening? They were allocating police hires to politicians. Politicians were in fact, bringing in their thugs who were actually criminals, and MD Yusuf said this has saddled the police force with an unsuitable and unsustainable personnel. Now, those people who were recruited in that cycle are the people causing this mayhem. That is the problem. Orientation is done, training is not there, training facilities are not there. So, these people are doing whatever they can with their uniform, and putting people in peril. You can’t solve this one with public relations, I’m sorry; it’s such a nasty situation.
The IGP also stated that there will be a new policing arrangement to tackle the offences of armed robbery and other violent crimes, and that will be unveiled soon. What do you think this will entail?
Now, again you see. Robbery has changed; Robbery has evolved. SARS was established when armed robbery was intercepting trucks going from Onitsha to Benin or Abuja to Onitsha, for traders that carried money. Now, what happened? You want to buy goods in Onitsha or Lagos or Kano, you wire money, and the people give goods to you, that was why the rate of kidnapping has risen. So, they are no longer stealing money when they stop people, but stealing people because when they steal you, you bring along your ATM card and they go and swipe your bank. So, the nature of robbery has changed, the nature of violent time has changed; the police has refused to change with it. I talked about recruitment; it’s not just dealing with recruitments; it’s also dealing with changing of doctrine and dealing with the orientation of skills. It’s saying how does the police adapt in the changing world of violent times? Rather than just liquidating people. You see, they are fond of computers right? If you are a kid carrying laptop computer, you are liable to be arrested as yahoo yahoo and liquidated, yes. Whereas, these are the people they should be making friends with because they have a lot of skills to help them to locate the people they need to catch but the police is not doing that. That’s part of the problem. Some people are pleased that the IGP bowed to the pressure to disband SARS, do you think disbanding SARS will bring about the solution to the age long issues of police violation of human rights, extortions and killings? It’s not what I think, it’s the reality of young people because too many people have been liquidated. If I started counting, you are going to continue to be on this line until probably 12 noon tomorrow. No country should tolerate that.
Are there no positive angles to SARS?
You tell me. So, what are they? What has SARS done that cannot be done by the Criminal Investigative Department (CID)? Can you tell me one thing that SARS does that cannot be done by the CID? Why do we have CID? Now look, what happens at the moment? What happens is that I quarrel with you; I am your boyfriend, you are my girlfriend or you are my inlaw, and I am your brother in-law, and we are quarreling, and I think that I can overrun you, I know somebody in SARS, I go to SARS and tell them that you are jealous of me, they come and collect you; they lock you up in SARS. In the morning, they start torturing you, they insert hot nail inside your genitals; what nonsense is that? What has that got to do with policing? Now, the majority as we speak, are of the views that SARS has done little or nothing to address the issues of robbery. And by the way, if you go to Abuja for instance, a place where SARS holds people is called abattoir. And actually, they liquidate people in this abattoir. And even, every SARS unit has an officer called OC Torture. An OC Torture included a license to kill. How can that be policing? That’s the problem. And if you are told you are going to SARS, your life is finished. It’s not about whether or not you committed the crime; you will be liquidated. If you don’t want to be liquidated, you are going to have to part with hundreds of thousands of Naira. How many people can afford that? I’m sorry to say this, but I really can’t find anything positive to say about SARS. My view is that the State Criminal Investigative and Intelligence Department (SCID), has divisions all over the country. We really need to also have a Federal Bureau of Intelligence and Investigation to be part of the police to deal with all of these violent crimes, and given the equipments and researches they need, they will to do precisely that. And those in SARS who have suitable holds can be absorbed into SCID and SDII finish.
