The spokesperson of the force said calls for the scrapping of the unit are unjustified.
The Nigeria Police Force has given further backing to its notorious unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), in the wake of the killing of seven police officers in Abuja.
The officers were killed on Tuesday, July 3, 2018, at Galadimawa Junction in the Federal Capital Territory. Even though the spokesperson of the FCT Police Command, Anjuguri Manzah, failed to mention possible motives for the attack, reports have indicated that the officers were killed while on a stop-and-search operation in Galadimawa.
While reacting to the tragic attack on Tuesday, Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Jimoh Moshood, said investigations has commenced to apprehend the perpetrators of the attack.
He further said the incident proves that SARS, a unit that has been vilified by the Nigerian public for months, should not be scrapped.
"The killing of the policemen goes a long way to prove that the call for the disbandment of the SARS is not justified," he said.
End SARS campaign
Over the past eight months, numerous Nigerians have taken to social media to accuse officers of the unit of several misconducts ranging from harassment, extortion, assault to extra-judicial killings.
This has led to relentless calls for the unit to be completely scrapped to ease the fears of Nigerians who live in dread of the officers of the unit.
When the earlier calls for the scrapping of the unit grew in December 2017, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, ordered the reorganisation of SARS' operational roles and activities.
Under the new arrangement, state Commissioners of Police were installed as overall heads of the Federal Anti-Robbery Squad nationwide.
The IGP also ordered for all SARS personnel nationwide to undergo a new training program to be organized in collaboration with some civil society organisations, local and Iiternational NGOs, and other human rights organisations.
Despite the reorganisation, the calls to scrap the unit has resurfaced with the unit still operating with impunity that mostly targets Nigerian youths.
Buhari working on fixing SARS
While speaking at a town hall meeting at the launch of National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, Clinics in Ibadan, Oyo State on June 26, 2018, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said President Muhammadu Buhari is concerned with the unit's conduct and has already ordered its review.
"The President has already ordered a review of the formation of SARS so that very soon we would be able to have SARS that will be responsible," he said.
The vice president further said the unit cannot be scrapped but be rehabilitated to curb the atrocities of the bad eggs.