Breaking: FG sets up special unit to replace SARS

As the federal government accept the proposal by the ENDSARS Movement on October 13, IGP Mohammed Adamu has set up a new outfit in place of the defunct squad.

The Special Weapon and Tactics Team (SWAT will have members who will undergo training next week, including tactical and psychological and medical examination to ascertain their fitness and eligibility for the new assignment.

Force PRO DCP Frank Mba, in Abuja on Tuesday, disclosed that team members from police commands in the south-east and the south-south will be trained at the Counter-Terrorism College, Nonwa-Tai, Rivers.

Those from the police commands in the north and the south-west will be trained at the Police Mobile Force Training College, Ende, Nasarawa and the Police Mobile Force Training College, Ila-Orangun, Osun, respectively.

For the operatives of the defunct SARS, Mba also noted they have been ordered to report for training and reorientation before their redeployment to their units,

The officers are expected to undergo the process as a prelude to further training and reorientation before being redeployed into mainstream policing duties.

“The medical examination will be carried out by the newly set-up Police Counselling and Support Unit, a unit, which henceforth, shall engage in psychological management, re-orientation and training of officers of the Force deployed for tactical operations and other duties,” Mba said in the press release Tuesday evening.

The unit, which is domiciled with the Force Medical Department and coordinated by the Force Medical Officer, has its membership drawn from psychiatrists, psychologists, medics, pastors and imams, public relations practitioners, civil society and other human rights groups with relevant qualifications and expertise.

He noted the police boss appeals to those protesting to “exercise restraint and allow measures being put in place to come to fruition and engender a police force that would meet the yearnings and aspirations of the citizenry.”

Nigerians have been protesting across the nation since Thursday, and initial efforts the federal government made to persuade them to stop protesting, including President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech, failed.

It was at a stakeholders forum that brought together agencies, ministers, and development partners  that the demands of the protesters were eventually adopted.