IGP scraps FSARS — with immediate effect

Mohammed Adamu, the inspector general of police, has ordered the immediate disbandment of the federal special anti-robbery squad (FSARS).

Bashir Ahmaad, a media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, made this known in a tweet on Monday.

“The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed A. Adamu has ordered the immediate disbandment of the Federal SARS, Special Investigation Panel and Special Tactical Squad. Details @PoliceNG,” he tweeted.

JUST IN: The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed A. Adamu has ordered the immediate disbandment of the Federal SARS, Special Investigation Panel and Special Tactical Squad. Details @PoliceNG

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— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) January 21, 2019

Speaking at his inaugural conference in Abuja on Monday, Adamu also directed that all quasi-investigation and operations outfits including the special investigation panel (SIP) and special tactical squad (STS) should also be disbanded.

“The proposed re-organisation will produce a new Special Anti-Robbery Unit which will be professional enough to protect the citizens in their line of duty, but uniquely potent enough to respond to any major weapon-related organised crimes in the swiftest and most ethical manner,” he said.

“While this initiative is being perfected, the operations of SARS which is currently centralised at the Force Headquarters is hereby decentralised: consequently, with immediate effect, the Commissioner of Police in each of the 36 Police Commands and the FCT is to assume full command and control authority on all SARS in their commands, while the FHQ Unit is, henceforth, subsumed under the command of the DIG FCIID.

“The impact of this is that the DIG FCIID and Command CPS shall from this date, not only assume administrative and operational control of SARS in their respective Commands, they shall also be directly held liable for any professional misconducts resulting from the operations of the Units in their Commands.

“Similarly, all quasi-investigation and operations outfits including the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) and Special Tactical Squad (STS) or any other such Teams under whatever name are hereby disbanded.”

Adamu also said a special election investigation team (SEIT) has been set up to carry out detailed investigations of all arrested electoral offenders across the country.

Tales of human rights violations by SARS operatives had flooded the social media and this resulted in the popular #EndSARS trend.

In August 2018, Vice President Osinbajo ordered Ibrahim Idris, former IG of police, to reorganise the unit and this led to the centralisation of the unit.