#EndSARS: Youth minister assures Nigerians erring officers will be punished

As #EndSARS became a trending topic again on social media, Sunday Dare, the minister of Youth and Sports has assured Nigerians that the federal government will soon address the problem and bring erring SARS officers to book.

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) is a unit of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) established to address armed robbery in the country.

But in the last few years, the unit's operations tend to have been bastardized as some SARS operatives have become notorious for brutality, extortion and stigmatizing the youths as ‘yahoo boys’.

SARS operatives are always in the news for assaulting Nigerians (Punch) Pulse Nigeria

It is against this background Nigerians called on the government again to scrap the police unit after a young man was allegedly shot dead in Delta State.

Outraged by the alleged incident, Nigerians have again cancelled SARS and asked the government to address the problem as soon as possible.

Reacting to the outrage on Twitter, the minister of Youth and Sport in a series of tweets on Sunday, October 4, 2020, assured Nigerians that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration would not allow the killings of the youth by SARS officers to continue to happen.

The minister also said that the perpetrators of the systemic assault on the youths would be brought to book.

The minister tweeted, “This government will not let that continue to happen. This morning I got assurances that the Police authorities will take necessary and definitive actions. SARS officers responsible for these systemic assaults on the Youth should be brought to book.

“If we stigmatize our youth as criminals, paint them all with one brush as ‘yahoo boys ‘within our borders, harass, attack & arrest them indiscriminately even before they get D chance to defend themselves-aren’t we as a country destroying their reputation and chances to succeed?”

Meanwhile, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki have condemned SARS and also called on the government to reform the police unit.