‘This harassment must stop’ — Abiru joins campaign against SARS brutality

Tokunbo Abiru, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the senatorial bye-election in Lagos east, has called for a comprehensive reform of the police as one of the strategies to end the brutality of the youths by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Abiru, who is the immediate past group managing director of Polaris Bank Limited, also rejected arbitrary arrest of youth carrying laptops or holding android phones, saying “it is a practice that must not have a place in our policing or criminal investigation system.”

The candidate, while speaking at a meeting with stakeholders in Ijede local council development area (LCDA) on Tuesday, he promised to pursue comprehensive police reforms, condemning the attack on a young citizen in Ughelli, Delta state on October 3 and extra-judicial activities of some SARS operatives across the federation.

He said the ban on all the tactical squads of the force by Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, is “not sufficient to guarantee or restore confidence of our youths, and indeed the entire countrymen, in the police.”

“The time to end all extra-judicial activities by security organisations is now,” he said.

“We are committed to this agenda as a citizen that places high premium on every life, mainly our youths on whose shoulders rest the future of our fatherland.”

Abiru said if elected, he will deploy the instruments of lawmaking and legislation to purse comprehensive reforms of our policing system with the focus on changing the mindset of our security operatives.

“In my resolve to ensure the security of our youths irrespective of their beliefs, ethnic nationalities or political affiliations, I will focus on using legislative instruments to restructure police operations; protect our youths from police brutality and ensure the enforcement of their human rights at all times,” he said

He explained that his decision to make the security and wellbeing of the youths as the cornerstone of his campaign agenda “stems from a belief that, if we must secure the future of Nigeria, our youths must play leading roles across all sectors freely and without fear or trepidation.