Dele Adeoluwa
THE last time the nation witnessed the nature of the massive obloquy against the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was, perhaps, in 1989 and 1993. The SAP Riots of 1989 and the campaign for the revalidation of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election were a near-revolution. And the #EndSARS protests compared with those two revolts in spontaneity and pervasiveness.
Between May and June, 1989, the nation erupted into a massive revolt, spearheaded by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and pro-democracy activists. It was a popular movement to protest the hardships occasioned by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)—inspired Structural Adjustment Programme(SAP) of the then military era.
It was an era when the Babangida regime enjoined Nigerians to keep tightening their belts until there were no more holes on their proverbial belts! It was a bloody revolt, which spread from city to city and in which scores were gunned down by security agents who violently put down the riots with live bullets! But at the end, the regime was forced to dish out what it called “palliatives” to cushion the effects of the hardships that prompted the revolt.
The revolt over the June 12 conundrum was as spontaneous but bloodier and more convoluted. Hundreds of persons might have been killed within the first three days of the revolt against the quite insensitive annulment as soldiers, who were drafted in to quell the revolt, mercilessly mowed down protesters.
Within those first three days, the nation witnessed a total shut down of businesses and social life. There was no single vehicular movement, especially in most Southwest cities where the revolt was most pervasive. Only a sea of heads massed up on the streets and major roads during the first three days of the revolt.
The backlash eventually forced the then military president, Ibrahim Babangida to “step aside.” Of course, the election remained annulled and the winner, who was the symbol of the struggle, Bashorun Moshood Kasimawo Abiola, paid with his life, but the most enduring gain of the struggle is the restoration of unbroken democracy we have been enjoying since 1999.
In the same vein, Nigerians, mostly youths, in the last few days, momentarily seeped into the streets like a torrent to put paid to the reign of terror being unleashed by the SARS operatives. The #End SARS campaign, which had for years been more of a social media struggle, suddenly took the hue of a popular revolt.
So, like a wild fire in the harmattan, the protests spread from city to city. And the message was unanimous: ‘SARS must go!’ The placard-carrying protesters were, in most parts, quite organised and peaceful in their conduct but tenacious in their demand.
The protests only went awry in some instances where overzealous security agents moved to violently disperse the protesters or where unscrupulous elements, suspected to be internet fraudsters, perhaps, on a revenge mission, appeared to be unruly or attempted to attack security people.
Like all genuine and popular revolts, the #EndSARS campaigners prevailed. Their revolt ended in a glorious denouement and the anti-people squad was disbanded. It is the triumph of the people’s supreme will. It is a gush of victory crowning a gutsy battle.
It is also victory of a sort for the Buhari regime and the police hierarchy for bowing to the people. President Muhammadu Buhari particularly deserves kudos for proving critics, who believed he has no listening ears, wrong by ordering the SARS’ disbandment.
It is quite tragic how SARS, which was formed in 1992 to fight violent crimes, including armed robbery, cultism and much later kidnapping, had so much degenerated into a brutal and fiendish force. Otherwise, the squad started quite well.
In the early days, the operatives were dreaded by armed robbers and other violent criminals. They were the nemesis of underworld kingpins. The mere mention of ‘SARS’ was enough to deter criminals. And unlike now that they are ubiquitous, the SARS operatives were shadowy, mostly faceless in those early days.
Sadly, however, over time, the squad degenerated from being an effective crime-busting squad into a brutal tool for rights abuses, brigandage and extra-judicial killings. “Bad eggs”, who must be many within the squad, soon turned their privileged skills into a money-making venture.
Their victims were mostly vulnerable young boys between the ages of 17 and 30. They would hunt for them like hunters do for games. Lads who wore dreadlocks, were dressed in ripped jeans and bore tattoos on their bodies were their primary targets. Young guys outside this bracket but were “suspected” somehow often fell victim too.
They would often waylay their victims by the road sides or raid television viewing centres, bars and recreational places, which always brittle with young people. They would accuse them of being internet fraudsters, armed robbers and/or cultists.
In crime fighting, it is normal to occasionally conduct ‘stop and search’ operations, especially when on a manhunt for a fleeing criminal suspect or searching for a stolen car. Notorious suspects have been fished out through such operations. But in such operations, it is only those who harbour incriminating items on them or conduct themselves suspiciously that are ordinarily nabbed for interrogation.
However, for some SARS operatives, virtually every lad stopped and searched is a suspect, even when nothing incriminating is found on him. They would unlawfully detain their victims for days or even weeks without charging them in court.
Those victims would then be forced to pay for their freedom sometimes with huge sums of money depending on a particular victim’s financial muscle. Those who were unable to pay would be subjected to rounds of torture and other dehumanising treatment.
There were instances where extremely ravenous SARS operatives often allegedly went about with POS machines. They would often compel victims who had no cash on them to fetch their ATM cards and fleece them.
These atrocities went on for years and generated serious public outcry. At a point, it became a campaign mostly in the social media. But the impunity continued unchecked. It was as if the operatives were lords onto themselves.
However, as the elders would say, the disbandment of the squad is akin to a putrid stench garnished with a sweetener, laced with an alluring aroma. While it is distasteful to swallow the stench, it is also difficult to spew out the sweetener. The lacuna created by the disbandment, like the Police hierarchy have promised, needs to be filled as soon as possible to avert the possibility of criminals taking advantage to unleash terror.
But before doing that, the authorities must exploit the opportunity to cleanse the disbanded squad with a ‘clinical moral brush’ to prevent the dregs whose activities had smeared the squad with a putrid tar from being recycled in the process of redeploying the operatives.
Again, the authorities should also fine-tune the mode of recruitment into the force these days. Then President Olusegun Obasanjo had raised an alarm sometime in 2005 that the Police were now recruiting armed robbers into the force. It was in one of the editions of his weekly phone-in radio programme tagged, ‘President Speaks’.
The presidential disclosure sounded incredulous then but as it has turned out, he appears to have been vindicated. While we still have patriotic personnel who are quite professional in the discharge of their lawful duties in the Police Force, some evil-minded ones have also insidiously infiltrated the force. These are the ones that are now muddling the waters for the rest more scrupulous personnel. That is why reports of policemen robbing people are no longer strange.
Particularly, just like senators observed during their sitting last Thursday, some of the disbanded SARS operatives behaved like armed robbers, with the vicious manner they often heckled their victims, especially whenever the latter resisted what they knew to be unlawful arrest.
These are some of the issues that the authorities are enjoined to address as they move to put together a “new improved,” law-abiding squad to replace the disbanded ‘SARS.
