‘It’s evil and fake’, Adesina reacts to report that he stopped Buhari from scrapping SARS

TRACKING___A news report on Sunday, October 11, 2020, had stated that the president, after meeting with the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed and Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo on Friday, had given the IGP a go-ahead to disband SARS, but Adesina prevailed on him, saying he should not bow to Twitter warriors.

Since last week, Nigerian youths have through peaceful demonstrations, been calling on the president and the IGP to disband SARS, due to the propensity of officers of the police unit for human rights abuses.

Rather than address the matter, the president on Friday, October 9, 2020, tweeted that he was making efforts to end police brutality in the country.

However, the nationwide demonstrations against SARS operations came to a head on Saturday, after a youth, Jimoh Isiaq, was killed by the police in Ogbomosho, Oyo state, while several other protesters were attacked in Abuja.

As a result, the IGP on Sunday disbanded SARS nationwide. But shortly after the IGP announced the disbandment of the police unit, Adesina took to Twitter to debunk the report that he advised Buhari not to scrap SARS.

Describing the report as fake and a concoction from the pit of hell, the presidential spokesperson said the report was designed to malign him.

He said, “A false story designed to malign me is making the rounds. It says the President was to have scrapped SARS on Friday, but was prevailed on by me not to do so, as government cannot bow to ‘Twitter warriors.’ Evil. Fake. A concoction from the very pit of hell”.

Nigerian youths renewed their agitations against police brutality last week and it took the government more than a week to accede to the youths’ demand.