IGP orders AIGs to arrest, detain erring SARS officers..

Molly kilete, Abuja
Following the outrage that greeted the excesses of men of Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Special Tactical Squad, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered Assistant Inspectors General(AIGS), in charge of zonal commands and state Commissioners of Police to arrest, detain and dismiss any police officer found violating the rights of citizens.
Adamu, has also directed the AIGs and police commissioners to prosecute such operatives after being tried and indicted in police orderly room trial.
He said he would no longer tolerate the situation where the conduct of some unprofessional police officers would drag the service in the mud and vowed to restore the lost glory of the police.
The IGP, gave the directive in a letter dated October 5, 2020,  titled, ‘Order and directives: Restrictions on the operations of F-SARS, SARS, IRT, STS, state anti-kidnapping units and other special units under any nomenclature that operates in mufti across all formation, zones and state commands’.
In the letter, the IGP, directed a full compilation of recent cases of abuse of power and violation of rights of Nigerians by the special squads operatives and forward to his office by Friday, October, 9.
He said in compiling the cases, they must include the dates, time , detail and venues of where it took place, personnel involved and the actions taken by their heads to address such complaints.
“Any personnel of the special units found violating the order must be arrested and escorted to the Force headquarters for appropriate actions. Weekly update on this operation must be forwarded to the office of the Inspector-General of Police for review and appropriate directives,”.
The letter with reference number cb:4001/IGP.SEC/ABJ/V.115/911, said, “Any police personnel that, henceforth, abuses his or her powers in a manner that degrades, endangers or threatens the lives and other fundamental rights of the citizens shall be promptly arrested, processed through our internal disciplinary machinery, and if found culpable, shall be dismissed from service.
“In addition, such personnel could be charged in consonance with their level of criminal liability in the instance.”
Adamu, in the letter directed the Commissioner of Police in charge of X-Squad, the Force Provost Marshall as well as the IGP Monitoring Unit to as a matter of urgency set up a joint team to enforce the order in all the 36 state commands and the Federal Capital Territory.
The letter however indicated that the joint team should be limited and focus on specific security breaches like kidnapping armed robbery, violent crimes.