The Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2, Olohundare Jimoh, has reiterated that the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) no longer exists in any form within the police structure.
He also dismissed claims that former SARS operatives were regrouped into new tactical units.
Videos of police officers involved in altercations with civilians have been circulating online, following the recent shooting of Mene Ogidi, a 28-year-old man in Effurun, Delta state.
However, the AIG claimed most of the videos resurfacing are old videos from as far back as 5 to 6 years ago.
Jimoh said this during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, saying everything learned from the ‘EndSARS’ is being followed.
“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.
According to him, former SARS officers were not dismissed from the police because they were “conventional police officers and general duty officers,” but were instead redeployed to different units within the force.
He also explained that extensive reforms and retraining programmes had been carried out following the disbandment of the controversial unit, with the involvement of international human rights organisations.
“A lot of internal human rights organisations, including the Red Cross international, and others even participated in ensuring that we reshape the behaviour of all these personnel.
“While I was CP Lagos, the Red Cross was in my office to ensure that those people who were rehabilitated in terms of performing their duty and ensuring that they continue to respect human rights and dignity and their behaviour is in contact with members of the public, conform with the international best practices, so they were very debriefed”.
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He further addressed the recent videos circulating online of police officers mistreating people, saying,
“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 5 to 6 years ago, that people are now tagging as something that just happened.
Despite this, he disclosed that the Inspector-General of Police had established a high-level committee to investigate all the viral videos and determine whether any recent abuses 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 said.
ASP Jimoh urged Nigerians to avoid spreading unverified information online, stressing that misinformation could undermine public trust and 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,” the official stated.
He also appealed to citizens to verify videos and reports before sharing them, insisting that the police were not attempting to cover up 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 5 to 6years ago but we are not sweeping anything under the carpet”, he added.
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