Police Department Rejects Ex-SARS Officers

The Criminal Investigations Department of the Nigerian Police Force has reportedly said it would not take any officer from the disbanded Special Anti-robbery Squad.

The Nigeria Police Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) , which is currently headed by DIG. Mike A. Ogbizi, is the highest investigating arm of the Nigeria Police. Its functions include investigation and prosecution of serious and complex criminal cases within and outside the country.

A top police chief who attended a recent meeting with the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu on how to re-absolve the personnel of the disbanded SARS, told TrackNews Online that DIG Ogbizi opposed posting of ex-SARS officers to the NPF CID.

The source revealed that other units of the Police Force were also reluctant to absolve the ex-SARS personnel due to their notoriety as lawless. He said: “The CID people rejected them; they say they don’t want them to corrupt their personnel. But the SARS officers are policemen on government payroll and we have to absolve them into the Force.

“The problem is because they had operated largely as an unaccountable unit of the force reporting centrally to a commissioner of police at the Force headquarters. They were not accountable to anybody. The vehicles, cash and other things they seized from suspects are not in police custody.

“At the state command level they were headed by young inexperienced officers, mostly ASPs so they misbehave.”

The source, a DIG, said state CIDs are mostly headed by commissioners of police who ensure that rules are followed and all operations are duly authorized.

He said most of the ex-SARS officers would be redeployed as regular policemen to support operations of the force. SARS was disbanded as a police unit on Sunday, October 11, 2020 by the IGP following nationwide protests tagged EndSARS. A Special Weapons and Tactical Unit (SWAT) was announced as a replacement.