Chima Azubuike, Gombe
Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), on Sunday faulted the disbandment of Special Anti Robbery Squad in the country, adding that the organization has reduced crime in Gombe state.
Speaking on behalf of the group, at a peaceful protest in Patanmi Stadium, the chairman of PCRC in Gombe State, Kabiru Muhammad said SARS has helped in the recovery of Gombe children kidnapped to other parts of the country.
He stated that the state has suffered from a militia group known as Kalari boys but was brought to a halt through the efforts of SARS officials.
“Disbanding of SARS will not augur well in Gombe state, because we have seen the advantages and the contribution of SARS in Gombe. Recently, people in Nigeria and even abroad, have witnessed that we lucky to reunite with our children, teenagers kidnapped from Gombe to other states were returned to their parents, this may not be unconnected with the effort of SARS. We have been bedeviled with what we call Kalari boys for the past 18 years but today the atmosphere is peaceful.
“SARS has to a large extent transformed our children, we are particular about Gombe state and we are not in support of other Nigerians to disband SARS,” he said.
He further urged government to consider repositioning and reformation of the entire police force in Nigeria.
According to him, “90% of these policemen for the last ten years have not been trained and the community also constitute part of the problem because when our children go a stray we send them to the security operatives to get employment. Parents should rather send good
ambassadors and not bad eggs from among us. We want the Inspector General of Police and the president to rethink and look at how they can be reformed.”
Also speaking, A patron of PCRC in the state, Yaya Hammari urged the government to consider using SARS to win the war on insurgency.
He said, “Scrapping them alone will not help the purpose, but government should screen and select those who are very good and mainstream them into any security force for those hardened they can be taken to the Nigeria army to serve in the North eastern country where insurgency is, there is no need ejecting them out completely so that they don’t worsened the security situation.”
