THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF END SARS PROTEST IN THE NIGERIA POLITY

Background to the Study

SARS is the Special Anti Robbery Squad. A group of special trained and equipped Nigerian police unit to combat violent crimes. However, when reports of their heinous activities seemed to be ignored, Nigerians took to the social media and staged a fierce protest in 2020 to expose the nefarious activities and put a wider call for its disbandment. Chukwu (2020)

Statement of the Problem

After years of horror stories of brazen extortion, illegal detentions and gruesome murders at the hands of local police, young Nigerians are out on the streets to demand the government scrap the police’s notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit. Vabguard (2020)

For the past two days, young Nigerians have protested in front of the Lagos state house of assembly—at day and at night. It’s an in-person manifestation of a long-running anti-SARS campaigns on social media platforms. Now the protests are rapidly spreading to several other states, and Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital.Punch(2020)

The ongoing street protests have been triggered by the latest reports of murders of innocent civilians committed by SARS officers, who have long operated with impunity.

While SARS was initially set up in 1992 to combat the rise of armed robbery incidents, it has since garnered a reputation for arbitrary arrests, torture, extortion and extra-judicial killings. Given its designation as a special unit with its officers often working in plain clothes and using unmarked cars, SARS officers have become known for crudely extorting innocent young Nigerians and operating outside the remits of law.

SARS officers typically target and detain young men by accusing them of being online fraudsters, simply on the evidence of owning a laptop or smartphone, and then request arbitrary and exorbitant bail fees before they regain their freedom. In more extreme cases, SARS officers abduct civilian targets and force them to make withdrawals at an ATM in exchange for their freedom, sometimes at gunpoint. The unit is also known to target young women as well with several reports of women being raped while in detention. Sahareporters(2020)

Without obvious avenues to seek redress, most victims are forced to pay these bribes, particularly given SARS’ fearsome reputation of violence and extra-judicial killings. In 2016, an Amnesty International report found “credible allegations” that SARS operatives “perpetrate acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment against detainees in their custody on a regular basis.” In a rare instance in September 2017, five SARS operatives were convicted of the extrajudicial killing two young men.Dailytrust (2019)

But it’s not just the fear of violence and possible death, SARS operatives are also known to threaten victims with illegal detention. It’s a feature of Nigeria’s broken criminal justice system which sees 72.5% of inmates in local prisons serving time without being sentenced.

Download Full Material-N5000