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Some youth in Kwara State, Thursday, took to the street on a peaceful protest calling for an outright end to operations of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police.
The youth who gathered around the popular Post Office area in Ilorin, the state capital carried banners with different inscriptions.
They marched through Ahmadu Bello Way to the State Headquarters of Kwara Police Command and to the Kwara State Government House, chanting Put an end to SARS.
Convener of the protest, Miss Saadat Bibire said the peaceful protest became expedient in view of countless misconduct and heinous crime perpetrated by the supposed anti crime formation, SARS.
She noted that, it is the duty of the Nigeria Police to protect and ensure safety of citizens, and not the other way round, as being witnessed across the country, especially, through extortion and extra-judicial killings of youth.
A middle age man lamented the serial extortion by men of the SARS, alleging that some SARS officers extorted fifty thousand naira from him, because they couldn’t understand the use of an application on his phone which he used to communicate with his clients as a creative writer.
Another victim alleged that SARS operatives have once forced him to transfer 20 thousand naira to their account, a fine for his dress style.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kwara State Command, Mr. Paul Omata while addressing the youth, commended them for the peaceful conduct of the protest.
He assured that their grievances have been noted and the command would communicate with the Inspector General of Police, whom he said had already initiated effort towards addressing some of the issues raised.
