Pastor Bakare: Prosecute criminal elements among SARS

By Henry Oladele

Pastor Tunde Bakare in Lagos on Sunday called on the Nigeria Police to expel and prosecute criminal elements among the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Pastor Bakare made the call during the Sunday Service at the Citadel Church, formerly the Latter Rain Assembly, at Oregun, Lagos.

Bakare, who commended the disbandment of SARS, said he was confident that this generation would succeed his own failed generation.

“It is with a heavy heart I have followed the #EndSARS protests, as young and older Nigerians are united in rejecting harassment, humiliation and the coldblooded murder of their fellow citizens.

“I recognise this movement for what it is: a wholesale rejection of the barrage of needless frustrations and degradations that define the Nigerian experience.

“You simply cannot police a people without their cooperation, and you cannot obtain the cooperation of the people for a tactical unit they no longer trust.

“We must find a balance between retaining the anti-robbery intention and re-evaluating the identity of the vehicle by first expelling and prosecuting the criminal elements among the rank and file and the leadership,” he said.

Bakare added that the country must re-evaluate, restructure, rebrand and rebuild confidence in an efficient and effective anti-robbery tactical unit.

“There is a threshold of decency below which no human being must fall, and I reject any status quo where citizens become disposable or the right to life becomes negotiable.

“I acknowledge the comments and efforts of the presidency, state governments, the national and state assemblies, and the NPF,” Bakare said.

He said it was evident that SARS was created with noble anti-robbery intentions, however, the grave irony was that it had become a grotesque embodiment of the problem it was created to solve.

“This savage Nigerian-on-Nigerian cannibalism must end, and I expect a decisive and lasting solution to be implemented.

“May the souls of the departed rest in peace and may the living forge a nation worthy of the resounding courage of the young men and women of the #EndSARS movement,” Bakare said. (NAN)