While speaking exclusively to PREMIUM TIMES by telephone on Friday afternoon, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Police Force,
Jimoh Moshood, reacted to a nationwide protest planned for Monday by anti-SARS protesters.
Jimoh Moshood, reacted to a nationwide protest planned for Monday by anti-SARS protesters.
The Police spokesman said that the protest would not be disrupted because Nigerian citizens have fundamental rights to expression and association. He said; “We respect the rights of all citizens to a peaceful gathering, expression, opinion and association.”
A coalition of civic groups has commenced sensitisation activities ahead of a coordinated and simultaneous protest slated for Monday.
The protesters would gather in Lagos, Owerri, Kaduna, Port-Harcourt, Ibadan, Warri, Abuja, and other towns and cities across the country to demand an absolute abolition of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a police department dogged by grievous allegations of rights abuses and theft.
Allegations of extra-judicial killings, torture, wanton arrests for bribes and other menacing conducts flooded social media since Saturday, with citizens taking their rage to the Internet and demanding action.
The campaigners have adopted #EndSARS to amplify specific cases of alleged abuse against SARS personnel.
Their aim is to compel the National Assembly and President Muhammadu Buhari to scrap the notorious squad, which was created by police leadership to combat armed robberies decades ago.
The campaigners delivered petitions to Speaker, Yakubu Dogara and Senate President, Bukola Saraki in September and said they received assurances that something would be done.
An online petition for the abolition of SARS has garnered nearly 30,000 signatures as of Friday afternoon.
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