SARS HARRASSMENT ON NIGERIANS YOUTH

#SARS HARASSMENT ON NIGERIAN YOUTHS

*BY*   #Onodjae Efemena#
The incessant intimidation and harassment of youths by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad otherwise known as SARS has taken a different dimension nowadays and if urgent actions are not taken against these infringements on the inalienable rights and liberties of the average Nigerian youths, we foresee circumstances where these could invariably transient to a serious hullabaloo.

SARS is a unit of the Nigeria Police Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department. Its duty is to arrest and investigate assassins, armed robbers, kidnappers and people involved in violent crimes.

Over time, SARS has shifted from its major duty.  Hence, harassing the innocent youths have become one of their priorities. Many Nigerian youths have been wrongly accused for crime(s) they can't explain. These accusations are what many youths are still suffering. However, harassing of innocent youths; create life injuries in them, making many Nigerian youths succumb to crimes since the harassment have dent their images for life.

This group of criminals called SARS has made apparently, a crime for an average Lagosian youth to dress attractively or nice, it's now an heinous crime in Lagos and its environs for a lad to own or drive good cars and a host of other amenities.  To crown it all, just recently  the commissioner of police in Lagos State ban its members on embarrassing citizens from this their 'on mufti stop' and search with the commonly called danfoo buses, we will not also negate the fact thatjust last week here  ,the police men on uniform in Anambra, very close to the Minister of Labour and Productivity's house, Dr. Chris Ngige, mistakenly fired or killed this same SARS member thinking he's a criminal just because the way he was dressed. In Lagos, a youth cannot move about with a good android phone any longer, let alone drive good cars on the street freely, this undemocratic and gross misconduct of the SARS operatives must be caution now and let sanity and sanctity be restored.  In other words, SARS should be attritely banned.

SARS primary recruitment system is through officer in the police corp but as it stand today a good number of SARS official are ex-criminals, a strategy employed to get criminals nabbed faster (sources withheld) but today has led to the victimization of innocent souls.
SARS has been the major cause of security worries now, not robbers. SARS bump on any youth calling them suspects based on expensive and flashy dressing. Virtually all well-dressed young men in Nigeria have been labelled cyber criminals and armed robbers. Lots of cases of victimizations have been recorded. Some  examples include; the killing of an 18-year old man this year,2018,  victimization of Popular Artiste, Reekado Banks, in Lagos mistaking him for a yahoo boy and the interruption of Jaywon's birthday party for the same reason.
A testimony from a student of Lagos State University(LASU): "I was arrested alongside my cousin and other guys at a bar in Lagos(bar undisclosed) and they were taken to the station and were all bailed for fees ranging from 50,000 upwards without any form of trial but molestation galore.
SARS mission has been defeated since robbery has now gone beyond usage of arms(though still in use as in the case of the Ofa robbery), to a stage where internet Crookery and petty robbery rule. Molestation is the only means of trial, SARS has in their kitty. My write up is not to demand for a rebranding of the Corp but a total overhauling and scrapping. I don't want to sound like an unrepentant reprehended but SARS can't match the tide of today's crime. SARS indulge in similar crimes as those they arrest youth for. Take for instance, they use threat to make extra income aside their salaries which are not accounted for.While their so-called targets make use of cyber crookery to make income. The difference between SARS and their prey(Yahoo boys) is that SARS apply force, they apply internet knowledge and crookery but they are still guilty of same offense.

What pains me most is the fact that most of the youths they harass on the street are not even yahoo boys. This act of harassment given to youths who are not yahoo boys often provoke them to be part of them.

Nowadays no youth is allowed  to dress smart and own an iPhone because harassment by this so-called SARS boys will be the order of the day. Most annoying is the fact that, even when you are with iphone or any other bigger phones they won't even check the contents of the phone before harassing one. They no longer carryout their duty which they are  called for instead they use it as an avenue to generate illegal money. For instance, August 3rd 2018, six SARS were arrested for extorting N40,000 from twins name Mark and Martins in Delta State. The arrest of SARS is not a good idea instead they should be stopped because some of the SARS officials been arrested end up been released at the end of the day. And this often makes them more brutal .

The harsh beating given to Nigerian youths is what I can't imagine. On this note, I call on the federal government to eradicate SARS as they no longer perform their duty as SARS but other way round.

#THE END OF SARS#

They are SARS
Who kill our future stars
With their different private cars
Check their guns full of scars
First thing is apple mobile phone on search
My pen won't rest till the end of SARS

*Inked by#
#Afolabi onlyGodknows#

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