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Lukman Olabiyi
Pastor Tunde Bakare, the serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly has joined league of important personality that thrown their weight behind campaign against police brutality and extra-judicial killings.
The #EndSARS protests which is currently going on across the country, has gained the support of many people including policitians and government officials.
Bakare in his sermon on Sunday at the church said Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) has became a grotesque embodiment of the problem it was created to solve.
He condemned maltreatment and senseless killings of the protesters by the police, called on God to fight for all the victims of police brutality and extra-judicial killings.
The pastor urged his congregation to pray like a victim of the menace for God to visit their oppressors with His anger.
He commended the youths for their bravery and resilience despite more reckless cruelty being faced.
“It is with a heavy heart I have followed the #EndSARS protests, as young and older Nigerians from various walks of life, across the length and breadth of the nation and the diaspora, are united in rejecting harassment, humiliation and the coldblooded murder of their fellow citizens.
“I recognise this movement for what it is: a wholesale rejection of the barrage of needless frustrations and degradations that define the Nigerian experience.
“There is a threshold of decency below which no human being must fall, and I reject any status quo where citizens become disposable or the right to life becomes negotiable. I applaud the resilience of protesters in the face of yet more reckless cruelty, and I am increasingly confident that this generation will succeed where mine has failed.
“I acknowledge the comments and efforts of the presidency, state governments, the national and state assemblies, and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). I also appreciate the need to find a delicate balance between curbing the spate of armed robbery as an occupation and acceding to the specific requests of protesters who have justifiably reached a saturation point.
“It is evident that SARS was created with noble anti-robbery intentions reminiscent of Operation Sweep, the late ’90s anticrime initiative of the Buba Marwa administration in Lagos.
“However, the grave irony of SARS is that it has become a grotesque embodiment of the problem it was created to solve and the tail is now
wagging the dog.
“You simply cannot police a people without their cooperation, and you cannot obtain the cooperation of the people for a tactical unit they no longer trust. In the short-term, we must find a balance between retaining the anti-robbery intention and reevaluating the identity of the vehicle by first expelling and prosecuting the criminal elements among the rank and file and the leadership.
“This is non-negotiable. We must Re-evaluate, Restructure, Rebrand and Rebuild Confidence in an efficient and effective anti-robbery tactical unit even as we work towards a more holistic and fundamental reconception of our security architecture on the journey to national rebirth.
“This savage Nigerian-on-Nigerian cannibalism must end, and I expect a decisive and lasting solution to be implemented, even as I commiserate with every Nigerian whose only crime was to be born Nigerian. l enjoin every aggrieved citizen to continue to find peaceful means to air discontents until we arrive at a version of Nigeria we can all be proud of. May the souls of the departed rest in peace, and may the living forge a nation worthy of the resounding courage of the young men and women of the #EndSARS movement,” said.
