FULANI KWAJAFA: I REGRET SETTING UP SARS

TRACKING____A retired Commissioner of Police, Fulani Kwajafa, has expressed regrets
for establishing the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force.

The excesses of the unit notorious for human rights violations have
sparked protests across Nigeria for over one week now with demonstrators
demanding a reform of the entire police system.

Kwajafa while speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa said the unit had
completely derailed from its founding objectives.’

He said, “My name is Fulani Kwajafa. I entered the Nigeria Police Force
in 1984. Then robbery was prevalent, this was why Buhari was Head of
State. He (Buhari) got a lot of complaints that people were stealing
from each other, robbing people — he told me and Mr. Inyang, the then
IGP, that we must do something about it or be fired.

“Mr. Inyang called me and told me to come up with a plan to save the
country from thieves, so I said okay. I told him to give me his trust,
resources, and officers to start work.

“After four months of creating SARS, there was peace, those who were not
caught ran, and those who were caught were sent to prison.

“This thing frustrates me, there is no reason why because someone
commits a crime that the person should be killed. There are laws and no
one will give an order that if you see armed robbers kill the person.

“I have been hearing disheartening news, to the extent that I have
thought to myself that it seems among the SARS officials, there are
armed robbers.

“This is not why we created SARS, the reason is completely different,
this is not the purpose. In fact, when I am mentioned as the creator of
SARS, I feel ashamed. It’s a thing of regret for me.

“If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have created it
because people who know when I established the unit always say to be, is
it not Kwajafa’s baby? But this is not what I birthed, it has been
changed.”