By Ifeoma Ikem
The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Hakeem Odumosu, said that the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, directive to disband the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has been complied with.
He said this while receiving a group of lawyers led by a human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, protesting police brutality as part of the raging #EndSARS campaign
CP said policemen under SARS had been disarmed and their offices have been stut down across the state.
According to him, all suspects in the unit of SARS have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department Panti,for continuation of investigations.
“Based on the directive of the Inspector-General of Police for disbandment of the unit, as you are here now you will see them (SARS officers) in the regular police uniform. They’ve been disbanded, all their arms have been collected; the cases they were handling and the suspects have been transferred to the State CID, Panti for continuation of investigation.
“All these is in compliance with the Inspector-General’s directive. You should understand that in Lagos, we have many police formations; we have, for example, the Special Fraud Unit, traditionally, they are not to carry arms, they are in mufti; equally, we have the Force CID personnel in Alagbon, they are not carrying arms and they are not to be in uniform, all these are specialised arms of the police. But the one that the IG has disbanded now has been disbanded from that day. If you go to their offices now in Surulere, Gbagada, they are under lock and key; we only posted policemen to guard the places for now.
Speaking further, the police boss said officers seen in a viral video harassing a female protester had been arrested.
While insisting that no #EndSARS protester has been killed, Odumosu said the person who died from a stray bullet at Surulere on Monday, was not a protester but a driver, who came of his car to check the cause of the gridlock on the road.