The Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Olohundare Jimoh, has reaffirmed that the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) no longer exists within the structure of the Nigeria Police Force.
Jimoh also dismissed allegations that former SARS operatives had been secretly regrouped into new tactical units.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s *Sunrise Daily* on Friday, the senior police officer said the Force had implemented lessons from the #EndSARS protests and introduced reforms aimed at improving police conduct and accountability.
“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,” Jimoh stated.
He explained that former SARS personnel were not dismissed from the Force because they remained conventional police officers and general duty personnel, but were instead reassigned to other departments.
Jimoh also disclosed that several international human rights organisations participated in retraining and behavioural reform programmes for officers after the disbandment of SARS.
“A lot of internal human rights organisations, including the Red Cross International and others, participated in ensuring that we reshape the behaviour of all these personnel,” he said.
According to him, the police leadership worked closely with stakeholders to ensure officers comply with international best practices in the treatment of civilians.
The AIG’s comments come amid renewed circulation of videos showing police officers involved in violent confrontations with members of the public, following the recent shooting of 28-year-old Mene Ogidi in Effurun, Delta State.
However, Jimoh maintained that many of the videos being shared online were not recent incidents.
“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 five to six years ago, that people are now tagging as something that just happened,” he said.
Despite this, he noted that the Inspector-General of Police had already constituted a high-level committee to investigate the viral videos and determine whether any recent cases of misconduct were involved.
“If there is any recent case among them, those responsible will be identified and dealt with appropriately in line with the law,” Jimoh added.
He urged Nigerians to avoid spreading unverified information online, warning that misinformation could erode public confidence and negatively affect national security.
“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 five to six years ago, but we are not sweeping anything under the carpet,” he said.
