SARS pioneer commissioner regrets action more than 3 decades after

Fulani Kwajafa, the former police commissioner who founded SARS in around the 1980s, during the first coming of President Muhammadu Buhari as a military ruler, is full of remorse now watching the squad degenerate.

According to Kwajafa, the unit had completely derailed from its founding objectives.

“I entered the Nigeria Police Force in 1984. Then robbery was prevalent, this was why Buhari was Head of State. He (Buhari) got a lot of complaint that people were stealing from each other, robbing people — he told me and Mr Inyang, the then IGP, that we must do something about it or be fired,’ he said in a BBC Hausa interview.

“Mr Inyang called me and told me to come up with a plan to save the country from thieves, so I said okay. I told him to give me his trust, resources and officers to start work.

“After four months of creating SARS, there was peace, those who were not caught ran, and those who were caught were sent to prison.

“This thing frustrates me, there is no reason why because someone commits a crime that the person should be killed. There are laws and no one will give an order that if you see armed robbers kill the person.

“I have been hearing disheartening news, to the extent that I have thought to myself that it seems among the SARS officials, there are armed robbers.

“This is not why we created SARS, the reason is completely different, this is not the purpose. In fact, when I am mentioned as the creator of SARS, I feel ashamed. It’s a thing of regret for me.

“If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have created it because people who know when I established the unit always say to be, is it not Kwajafa’s baby? But this is not what I birthed, it has been changed.”

Following days of protesting by many Nigerian youths in most of the states in the south and east, Buhari ordered IGP Mohammed Adamu to dissolve the unit and replace it with SWAT.

States have also intervened and like the federa government, Lagos amog others, ave set up judicial panels to inquire into the atrocities of the squad, and dispense justice.

But the protesters will not be appeased yet as the rally gets strong on its eighth day.