IGP bans FSARS, other police tactical squads from routine patrols

By our reporter| The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on Sunday banned the personnel of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) and other Tactical Squads of the Force from embarking on routine patrols.

The IGP’s ban which apparently is in reaction to the rising number of Nigerians killed by FSARS in recent months and the outraged that has trailed such deaths was contained in a statement by the Force, Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba.

According to the statement, the IGP “banned the personnel of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) and other Tactical Squads of the Force including the Special Tactical Squad (STS), Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Anti-Cultism Squad and other Tactical Squads operating at the Federal, Zonal and Command levels, from carrying out routine patrols and other conventional low-risk duties – stop and search duties, checkpoints, mounting of roadblocks, traffic checks, etc – with immediate effect.”

The officers were warned against carrying out stop and search duties, checkpoints, mounting of roadblocks, traffic checks, etc with immediate effect.

The statement further stated that the IGP warned the Tactical Squads against the invasion of the privacy of citizens particularly, which included the “indiscriminate and unauthorized search of mobile phones, laptops and other smart devices,” adding that “they are to concentrate and respond only to cases of armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes when the need arises.”

According to Mba, the “directives come against the backdrop of findings by the leadership of the Force that a few personnel of the Tactical Squads hide under these guises to perpetrate all forms of illegality, contrary to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement establishing the squads.”

Many Nigerians took to the social media on Saturday to express their anger over the activities of men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigerian police, calling for the unit to be proscribed, as the #EndSars hashtag was the number one trend on social media app, Twitter for several hours.