The Nigeria Police Force has reassured Nigerians that the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) no longer exists within the structure of the police force.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Olohundare Jimoh, gave the clarification on Friday during an appearance on Sunrise Daily aired on Channels Television.
Jimoh also dismissed allegations that former SARS operatives had been regrouped under different tactical units of the police.
His comments followed renewed public concerns triggered by videos circulating online showing police officers involved in confrontations with civilians, including the recent shooting of 28-year-old Mene Ogidi in Effurun.
The police chief, however, maintained that many of the videos currently resurfacing online were old clips dating back between five and six years.
“The SARS has been disbanded, and there is no area where the old SARS were migrated into another squad or formation for them to do anything,” Jimoh said.
According to him, officers who previously served in SARS were not dismissed because they remained conventional police officers and general duty personnel within the force.
He explained that following the dissolution of the unit, affected officers were redeployed to various departments while undergoing extensive retraining and reform programmes.
Jimoh disclosed that several international human rights organisations participated in the retraining process aimed at improving officers’ conduct and respect for human rights.
“A lot of international human rights organisations, including the Red Cross International and others, participated in ensuring that we reshape the behaviour of all these personnel.
“While I was Commissioner of Police in Lagos, the Red Cross was in my office to ensure that those people were rehabilitated in terms of performing their duties and ensuring that they continue to respect human rights and dignity, ” he said.
The AIG further addressed concerns over recent viral videos allegedly showing police brutality, insisting that most of the footage being circulated did not reflect current events.
“Eventually, all the videos that you are seeing online, outside the incident that happened in Delta, are extremely old videos, some of them dated to about five to six years ago, that people are now tagging as something that just happened,” he said.
Jimoh revealed that the Inspector-General of Police had constituted a high-level committee to investigate the videos and determine whether any recent incidents of abuse were involved.
“If there is any recent case among them, those responsible will be identified and dealt with appropriately in line with the law,” he added.
The police official urged Nigerians to avoid spreading unverified information online, warning that misinformation could damage public trust and undermine national security.
“We want people to know that if you are helping the police force, then you are helping Nigeria. Whatever you put out should be based on facts,” he stated.
He also appealed to citizens to verify videos and reports before sharing them, insisting that the police were not attempting to conceal genuine cases of misconduct.
“We want people to ensure that before you move a video to another person, verify if they are true or not.
”There are quite a number which are rampant but happened five to six years ago, but we are not sweeping anything under the carpet,” Jimoh added.
