TheNewsGuru

Tag: SARS

  • Breaking: Osinbajo orders overhaul of SARS

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has ordered the immediate overhaul of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) bringing to an end campaign to #EndSARS.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports this is contained in a statement signed by Osinbajo’s spokesperson, Laolu Akande.

    According to the statement, a reformation of the NPF and investigation of alleged unlawful activities of SARS in order to afford members of the general public the opportunity to present their grievances with a view to ensuring redress are also on the way.

    “Following persistent complaints and reports on the activities of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) that border on allegations of human rights violations, His Excellency, Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN, Acting-President, Federal Republic of Nigeria has directed the Inspector General of Police, to, with immediate effect, overhaul the management and activities of SARS and ensure that any Unit that will emerge from the process, will be intelligence-driven and restricted to the prevention and detection of armed robbery and kidnapping, and apprehension of offenders linked to the stated offences, and nothing more.

    “The Acting President has also directed the IGP to ensure that all operatives in the emerging Unit conduct their operations in strict adherence to the rule of law and with due regard to International Humanitarian Law and the constitutionally guaranteed rights of suspects. The operatives should also bear proper identification anytime they are on duty.

    “In the meantime, the Acting President has directed the National Human Rights Commission to set up a Committee that will conduct nation-wide investigation of the alleged unlawful activities of SARS in order to afford members of the general public the opportunity to present their grievances with a view to ensuring redress,” the statement read.

    Reacting to the development, #EndSARS campaign Chief, Segun Awosanya said “The Devil is in the details. The implementation of the order is key.

    “We will remain vigilant as we press on to ensure effective monitoring. Humans are weakest at the point of success but we must understand that success by itself is a journey and a destination”.

     

  • SARS had a gun to my head last night- Ill Bliss laments

    Nigerian rapper, Ill Bliss has joined the league of entertainers who have encountered the viciousness of SARS officers as he discloses how they had guns to his head.

    The rapper and music executive made this known on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, on his Twitter page.

    He wrote:”Last night SARS had guns to my head! Lying on the coal tar next to my manager/ what the fk is going on? Searching us for tramadol and…..”

    Unknown to many, several Nigerian entertainers have had a taste of SARS unjust treatments and it doesn’t look like it is going to end anytime soon.

    On Sunday June 3rd 2018, melodious singer, Reekado Banks narrated his experience in the hands of men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad popularly known as SARS. Reekado didn’t have nice words to say.

    In the same vein, Afro-pop singer, Mayorkun recounted how SARS disrupted his interview.

    In a series of tweets on his Twitter page, Mayorkun said :”Good morning, may you not be harassed by SARS today in Jesus Name,” he tweeted.

    On-Air personality, Dotun went on to reveal how Mayorkun’s interview was disrupted in another tweet.

    “They caught you & disrupted our interview time yesterday. Sad lots ?”

    I was assaulted, brutalized by men of SARS-Nigerian cries out

     

     

     

     

  • Ruggedman reveals how to identify a true SARS officer [Video]

    Ruggedman reveals how to identify a true SARS officer [Video]

    Nigerian rapper, Ruggedman has revealed how to identity a true SARS officer.

    The outspoken rapper took to his Instagram page on Tuesday, July 17, 2018, where he posted a video of his visit to the new OC SARS Lagos state, CSP Peter Gana.

    Thereafter, he went on to show the logos that are imprinted in the uniforms of the true SARS officers.

    According to him: “Back to my mission with the new OC SARS Lagos state, CSP Peter Gana. He said a lot of people have been impersonating and carrying out terrible acts as sars officials and he showed me how to spot fake sars. So I thought to share them with my people. 1. The real sars have a Red scorpion on their cap and jacket with the number 039 on them. 2. Sars units are only allocated 2 riffles. So any group of alleged sars officials you see with more than 2 riffles are fake. I then told him that 1. Without a proper uniform, anybody (including armed robbers) can buy black t-shirts and print sars on them. 2. They need proper mode of identification e.g. name/number badge to make tracing their station easy.

    “3. Since they are a special unit with so much negativity around them at the moment, it’s best to get them off the streets for now (unless when a special crime is happening) because the brutalisation, extortion, kidnapping and unlawful arrests of innocent Nigerians is too much. We don’t have a problem with them dealing with confirmed criminals, but treating innocent Nigerians like animals is turning the country into a ticking time bomb.

     

    “If you fall victim to the rogue officials, if a video is impossible just try to get a good picture of one of them. Then dm me or call CSP Chike, PPRO, Lagos – 07065246927; CSP Dolapo, ZPPRO, Onikan – 09071555555 and CSP Peter Gana, OC FSARS Ikeja- 08033119661. Just like us, he is also tired of the police impunity. While we wait to see the difference the new OC Sars has promised, the #Endsars campaign is here to stay until our demands are met,” he wrote.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BlWE-EcnCny/?taken-by=ruggedybaba

     

    Over time, Ruggedy baba has continued to be vocal about the issues pertaining to SARS brutality and their inhumane treatment of Nigerians.

    Recall that a few months ago, he had an outburst with a top police officer over the death of a young man who was reportedly killed by SARS. In the video suspected operatives of SARS were pushing a certain young man who they claimed refused to allow them to see the content of his phone. It was reported that he died from wounds inflicted by the officers.

     

     

     

  • EndSARS: It is heart-breaking that the government is yet to do anything about SARS brutality- Ruggedman

    Ace Nigerian rapper, Ruggedman for some time now has been in the fore front of championing the end SARS campaign.

    The brutality of the Special Anti-Robbery (SARS) squad operatives and complaints made by Nigerians has become a common sight in their daily lives.

    Ruggedman in a recent chat with Hip TV said it is heart-breaking that the people who are meant to protect Nigerians, are the people Nigerians need protection from.

    “ It’s been heart breaking when you come to the realization that the people you are supposed to run to for protection, are the people you now need protection from .It is sad that nothing is being done about it by the powers that be. Everybody seems to be quiet about it, no Governor, no local government chairman, no President or Vice president has said anything about it”

     

    On why he started condemning SARS brutality, he said: “I started speaking out about SARS even before I had any encounter with them. I am human, I am Nigerian and it is unfair to unlawfully arrest someone and beat them up, shoot them as seen in some cases. Right now, it’s a crime to SARS officers for you to look good, have a tattoo, and have a funky hairdo.It is one thing for you to be a celebrity , it’s another thing for you to use that status to impact positively on people”.

     

    May God punish people looting Nigeria’s funds- Ruggedman

     

  • SARS officials rescues abducted medical doctor in Rivers

    Officials of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, have rescued a medical doctor, who was kidnapped on Sunday by unknown gunmen.

    The doctor identified as Mr. Evaristus Emekwuru was said to have been abducted in Nonwa, Tai Local Government of Rivers State and had been with his captors for four days before he was rescued.

    SARS Commander in Bori, Abdullahi Mohammed, told our correspondent that his men swung into action immediately they learnt about the incident.

    Mohammed explained that the efforts of the SARS operatives paid off when they located the whereabouts of the victim and rescued him at 2.30pm on Wednesday.

    He pointed out that one suspect, Baridon Fifii, was arrested during the rescue operation inside a bush several kilometres away from the place the medical doctor was abducted.

    He disclosed that the kidnappers had whisked their victim away from Nonwa inTai LGA to Deyon in Gokana LGA on the day the incident happened.

    “On May 30, 2018, at 1430 hours, my team rescued a medical doctor, one Evaristus Emekwuru, who was kidnapped from Nonwa, Tai Local Government Area to Deyon in Gokana Local Government Area four days ago.

    “One of the suspects known as Baridon Fifii was arrested in connection with the kidnap of the medical doctor,” a short text message from the police head in Bori read.

    Mohammed further disclosed that no ransom was paid before the rescue of the doctor, adding that Emekwuru was also in good health when he (victim) regained his freedom.

  • Police arrest SARS official for extortion

    The Police Command in Lagos has arrested one Insp. Charles Omotosho, an operative of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for allegedly extorting N5, 000 from a hapless citizen in Ikorodu, near Lagos.

    The Head of Public Complaints Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) of the command, ACP. Abayomi Shogunle, made the disclosure in a statement on Friday in Abuja.

    He explained that Omotosho was arrested, following a complaint from a citizen via twitter on May 16.

    Shogunle said that Omotosho forced his victim to make a bank transfer of N5, 000 into his account for an arrest over a flimsy reason.

    He said that in the course of preliminary investigation, a copy of the officer’s statement of bank account was obtained and the amount transferred was discovered.

    “It has also been established that there was a contact between the officer’s patrol team and the complainant and others at Ikorodu as contained in the complaint.”

    Shogunle said the officer had been removed from front-line police duties and taken into custody.

    The PCRRU head said that the inspector-general of police had ordered immediate commencement of disciplinary action against Omotosho in line with the police Act and other regulations.

    “PCRRU has handed the erring officer to the AIG Zone 2 Command Lagos, together with a print out of his statement of bank account for necessary action, the outcome will be made public soonest,” Shogunle said.

    The PCRRU was established by the police authorities in 2015 with a mandate to receive and resolve cases of professional misconduct brought against officers.

  • Nigerian Artist detained by SARS over photo of him wielding a rifle

    Jibola Jasper, popularly known as Jhybo, said he was detained by SARS officers along Oba Akran Avenue in Ikeja, Lagos, because of a photo on his phone.

    He said the SARS officer forcefully checked his phone and found the photo above, so they held him, even after he explained that he’s an artist and the photo was from a video shoot.

    He wrote:

  • I was assaulted, brutalized by men of SARS-Nigerian cries out

    I was assaulted, brutalized by men of SARS-Nigerian cries out

    A certain social media user has narrated the ordeal he claimed to have had from the men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force.

    Vaughn E. Itemuagbor reveals that 2018 alone, he has had two horrifying encounters with SARS officers, one of them resulting in some bodily harm they inflicted on him.

     

    Itemuagbor, who says he works between 18 and 20 hours daily, affirms that though he studied Plant Science in school, he took up computer programming in order to make a reasonable living.

     

     

    Labelling himself as “one of the most sought-after computer programmers in Nigeria,” Itemuagbor says that SARS officials seem to have chosen him for “torture on a monthly basis.”

     

    He claims to have reported the issue to the Police “multiple times,” but that “nothing has ever been done.”

     

    He even took his case to the “Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit – PCRRU, Nigeria Police Force,” but he didn’t get a reprieve.

     

    “You are a young man, you drive a car and stay in Port Harcourt. You must be guilty of some crime,” he claims the SARS men told him during his last Sunday exeprience with them, sequel to which they proceeded to beat him up, allegedly unprovoked.

     

    “Admit you are a Yahoo boy and write it down here, else, I go continue (the brutality),” Itemuagbor says a SARS official told him.

     

    “Those are the words he repeated continuously as he raised his hands and landed multiple blows on my body,” Itemuagbor recalls

     

    As if that wasn’t ruthless enough, Itemuagbor says, his oppressors forced him to pay N150,000 for his freedom, while they also allegedly pressured him to implicate himself in a statement.

     

    “At the end of the day, they took 150k from me, and asked me to write that I offered them a bribe to facilitate my release. All this happened in under three hours on Sunday,” Itemuagbor says.

     

    The bitter experience has left him “very sad and depressed”.

     

    Over 20 students injured, hospitalized as police invade Osun Poly

    Check out the pictures below

     

     

     

     

  • Rivers APC Congress: Gov. Wike laments illegal use of SARS

    Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has declared that the illegal use of operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and military personnel to cause rancour ahead of the APC Congress in the state has vindicated him.

    He stated that the series of statements released by APC stakeholders on the illegal activities of SARs Personnel in the course of their forthcoming congress should draw the attention of all well-meaning lovers of democracy.

    Speaking during a courtesy visit by the retired military and para-military officers of Ogoni extraction at the Government House Port Harcourt on Friday, Governor Wike said if security agencies can be negatively used during a party congress, Nigerians should expect electoral mischief, masterminded by security agencies in 2019.

    “In an ordinary party congress, over a platoon of soldiers and more than 200 SARs personnel have been handed over to one man. If these operatives protect just one man, why are other communities left without protection?

    “Even the notorious election rigger, SARS Commander Akin Fakorede is operating without check because he has the support of the Police High Command,” Wike said.

    He said that conflicts during elections are generated by overzealous security agents, detailed to manipulate the process.

    The governor urged the retired military and paramilitary senior officers to use their contacts in the military to prevail on them to respect the rule of law in a democracy.

    He stated that his administration will continue to invest in the promotion of security of lives and property across the state.

    Governor Wike thanked the retired military and paramilitary senior officers of Ogoni extraction for their desire to contribute to the development of the state. He urged other leaders to emulate the Ogoni retired officers.

    Leader of the Retired Military and Paramilitary Officers of Ogoni Extraction, Rear Admiral John Nicholas Bakpo thanked Governor Wike for infrastructural development of Ogoni communities.

    He said that as retired military and paramilitary senior officers, they are willing to offer their services for the security of Ogoni land.

     

  • Senator Dino Melaye re-arrested, moved to SARS headquarters

    Reports coming in say that Sen. Dino Melaye whose residence was besieged on Monday by security agents has been arrested early Tuesday.

    Melaye was said to have been moved to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Headquarters, Guzape, Abuja.

    The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) had on Monday confirmed the arrest of Melaye at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Monday morning.

    Spokesman of the Service, Mr Sunday James, disclosed that Melaye was arrested by Immigration officials “based on instruction”.

    The confirmation came hours after the senator, who represents Kogi West, announced the arrest on his Twitter handle at 7:32 a.m.

    “I have just been arrested at the international wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on my way to Morocco for an official engagement sponsored by the Federal Government after checking in,” he tweeted.

    The police recently declared Melaye wanted after he was accused of supplying arms to some murder suspects, who allegedly implicated him.

    Melaye denies the allegations, which he describes as politically motivated.

    The senator was later freed at the airport but was trailed to his Maitama residence by the police.

    The police have yet to confirm Melaye’s arrest.