Misau, ex-police officer turned senator, says ‘SARS is used to intimidate politicians’

Isah Misau, senator representing Bauchi central, says the officers of the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) are used in the intimidation of politicians.

The senator, a former police officer, said this in reaction to the social media protest of Nigerians against the human rights abuse by SARS operatives.

Moving a motion on the floor of the senate on Tuesday, Misau said he had received petitions on the matter from his constituents.

The petition, he said, ranges from extra-judicial killings to brutality and torture.

He said SARS is supposed to be under the police department of investigation and not operations.

“Mr President if you go through social media, you will see that so many things are happening and there are a lot of petitions from my constituents and a lot of people who came and met me,” Misau said.

“According to the police act and regulation, the force criminal and investigation and intelligence department is the highest investigative arm of the police.

“The department is divided into 14 sections of which the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) is one of them. The SARS is supposed to be a section that handles robbery cases and answerable to the commissioner of police.

“In the last few months I have received several petitions from my constituents against SARS and it varies from extra-judicial killings, brutality and torture. The incidences are not isolated as many people have been sharing their experiences.

“Today, they are being controlled in the operation, the control is from the force headquarters which is not supposed to be, it supposed to be headed by a commissioner of police in the force CID.

“SARS is used to intimidate opponents and sometimes politicians. Sometimes you find that the federal SARS go to state and arrest people without making reference to the commissioner of police they bring them to Abuja and detain them.

“Mr President, we have to do something about SARS, it shouldn’t be under the operations department, it is supposed to be under investigation.”

The senate has mandated its ad hoc committee on security to investigate allegations of human rights abuse levelled against SARS.

On Tuesday, Jimoh Moshood, spokesman of the police, had alleged that “mischievious” politicians were behind the #EndSARS campaign.