Overhauling SARS Will Not Bring About Real Change – Groups

LUCKY LAWAL

 Access to Justice and Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) have reacted to the order by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN, directing the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to immediately overhaul the management and activities of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) by ensuring that it becomes an intelligence-driven unit, restricted to the prevention and detection of armed robbery, kidnapping, apprehension of offenders linked to the stated offences, and nothing more.

In a statement made available to P.M.EXPRESS the groups said, “While we commend the intervention of the Acting President, we regret that it took this length of time for Nigeria’s leadership to rise to the occasion and act. Had SARS been reformed sooner, it could have saved (possibly) hundreds of human lives lost to police violence each year and spared many Nigerians excruciating and harrowing  encounters with SARS operatives”

“For more than three years, President Buhari’s government failed to address the escalating culture of impunity within the police force and protect Nigerian people from widespread and rampaging abuses of police power and the untold suffering it brought to them. This is in spite of the fact that the Nigerian Constitution provides that the “security and welfare of the government shall be the primary purpose of government” – Section 15. The Presidential intervention was therefore, a long overdue but a welcome development”.

“In compliance to the Acting President’s order, the IGP has ordered the immediate overhauling of SARS nationwide, changing its nomenclature, its commanders and
structure. He also promises a new set of “Standard Operational Guidelines and Procedures, and code of conduct for all FSARS personnel. However, all of this is mostly a rehash of old, draft policy. Late last year, the IGP had promised that the SARS unit would be revamped, announcing measures similar to the ones he has now outlined, but the promised changes did not materialize and SARS personnel continued to prowl the Nigerian landscape with accustomed impunity”.

After a review of the IGP’s new “overhaul” order, Access To Justice is convinced the measures come too short and do not go far enough of what is needed to reform SARS.

The group gave the following reasons:

1. The measures first of all appear like a knee-jerk reaction to the Presidential directive, having been announced just on the heels of the directive. Such speed does not provide evidence of thoughtful reflection, sober deliberation, wide and strategic consultation on an issue of such huge public importance. The IGP over-sped on the response in a way that questioned his genuineness of purpose.2.  There are no measures of accountability for unlawful actions proposed in the new policies. The IGP offers the public, communication channels for reporting grievances against FSARS, but did not commit the police force to ensuring that every complaint made against FSARS operatives will be promptly and fairly investigated, and where substantiated, result in a definite outcome. It is important to note in this context, that the police force has always had communication lines for reporting unlawful or unprofessional behaviour of its officers. The problem is that, oftentimes, complaints, after they are made, draw a blank and those complained against do not get questioned or punished at the end of the day. Sometimes too, complainants are transposed into crime suspects to punish them for daring to complain. The proposition, therefore, to re-use this old template this time around without more, as a response to the presidential directive is clearly a no-brainer. The internal police complaint procedure is abjectly unreliable and uninspiring.

   3. The IGP also fails to offer concrete proposals for ensuring safeguards against abuse are effective: his new policy contains no measures/guarantees for: (a) protecting complainants; (b) ensuring complaints get fair and speedy consideration, and (c) complainants are not subjected to reprisal attacks or persecution by persons within the police system
   A2Justice and NOPRIN, therefore, call on the IGP to go back to the drawing board, and fashion a new, more embracing and inspiring set of reforms for SARS. A set of measures more credible, purposeful and efficacious than the ones he has just released. In addition to this, A2Justice and NOPRIN urge the IGP to undertake similar but far-reaching measures to reform the police force as a whole, and not focus on SARS alone. The police force has been systematically degraded over the course of several decades, and is too broken, at this time, to offer services that meet the professional policing needs of Nigerians. Undertaking a holistic reform is needed to ensure that reforms of any units within the police force stand a chance of succeeding. If the police force remains the way it is, the overhaul of the SARS Unit will largely be unfruitful and unsustainable over time.

   A2Justice and NOPRIN also call on the Presidency to call out the Police Service Commission (PSC) as well, and order its rejuvenation; the PSC is the body constitutionally mandated to appoint and discipline members of the Police Force. Since 1999, that body has stayed inert, and neglected to perform its more important constitutional role in ensuring the police force is accountable; delegating, instead, its disciplinary functions to the same people it ought to oversee. This is a major anomaly that has contributed to the sustained culture of impunity within the police force and must be addressed simultaneously with efforts to reform the police force. In many parts of the world, external oversights like the PSC are crucial to seeing that police services are delivered in a professional, ethical and accountable manner, but Nigeria’s case has been unfortunately different.   A2Justice and NOPRIN urge
   the Presidency to give directives that push the PSC into more active gear, to justify its existence and play its part in reforming Nigeria’s police force into a truly democratic institution.