Police investigating person who started social media campaign

The Nigeria Police Force has commenced investigation into the person who created the #EndSARS internet campaign that generated a lot of anger towards its Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit over the past few days.

According to Police Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, the person who allegedly started the campaign, identified as Jega Awosanya Segun, is under suspicion of being sponsored by politicians to damage the reputation of the unit.

While speaking on Channels Television, the police spokesman remarked that Awosanya has ulterior motives for creating the campaign as he's been linked to "mischievous politicians ".

He said, "Somebody who had an ulterior motive put up #EndSARS, Nigerians should be mindful because the social media is very porous.

"We traced the hashtag and traced it to mischievous politicians that are trying to create problem in the system that SARS is a stumbling block for them to achieve objective in the election and we are investigating this.

"The owner of the hashtag is being investigated. We know freedom of expression is the right of every Nigerian and we are taking people up because of that.

"It is quite unfortunate, I'm not mentioning any name but this same Jega Awosanya Segun is the owner of the hashtag and we have seen his picture with various crop of politicians and we are investigating that for Nigerians to know the reason why."

Over the past few days, the internet has been awash with a lot of anger directed towards one of the country's most notorious law enforcement units.

The outrage resulted in the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, ordering for a reorganisation of the unit on Monday, December 4.

Under the new arrangement, state Commissioners of Police are now the overall heads of the Federal Anti-Robbery Squad nationwide, meaning the unit now operates in the State and Zonal Commands with immediate effect.

The IGP also ordered for all SARS personnel nationwide to undergo a new training program to be organized in collaboration with some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Local and International NGOs, and other Human Rights Organizations.

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Despite the IGP's response, Moshood insisted that SARS is not as bad as it has been painted online, and that people should stop pushing for the elimination of the unit.

He said, "SARS has been doing very very well. We are not saying that there is no infraction, if there is an infraction, not only on SARS personnel but conventional policemen - people should report to us.

"We want to disabuse their minds that SARS should be ended. But when you have complain, complain to us. For a lot of people pushing their remarks on social media, most of them are not correct."