The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami has stated that there is no sufficient evidence to prosecute 33 operatives of the defunct Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS).
TheNigeriaLawyer recalls that a Presidential Investigative Panel led by the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Mr Tony Ojukwu, probed into allegations of brutalities against SARS operatives between 2018 and 2019 and submitted its report on 3rd day of June, 2019 to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Meanwhile, the report stated that 35 Police personnel in 12 states and the FCT, are wanting for various crimes including extrajudicial killing, death in police custody, unlawful arrest, biased investigation, unlawful intimidation, harassment, criminal assault, torture, cruelty, inhuman and degrading treatment, threat to life, extortion and confiscation of property, among others.
Meanwhile, the report proposed punishment such as reduction in rank and dismissal for 33 police officers while it recommended N249m compensation to 57 victims and a public apology to 35.
Conversely, the Attorney General of the Federation Committee meant to review the report of the panel has stated that the report “does not meet prosecutorial needs” as it lacked vital exhibits, such as “medical evidence and statements of the suspects”.
“The report of the panel does not meet prosecutorial needs. No proper investigation was concluded in all the cases. Admissible evidence such as exhibits, medical evidence, statements of the suspects and witnesses that can be used in court have not been obtained or recorded in the appropriate sheet from the suspects and witnesses by the appropriate investigation team.”
The report expressed concern that the indicted officers “are still in the service and ought to go through the internal police disciplinary measures to avoid prosecuting officers in uniform”.
It listed three actions that “must be taken in earnest” for the AGF office “to be able to successfully implement the panel’s recommendations”.
Among them are that the indicted officers must be made to undergo disciplinary actions and dismissed from service where necessary, while the IGP should set up a special team to further investigate the individual cases.
It stated, “The indicted officers should be made to undergo disciplinary actions immediately and dismissed where appropriate.
“That the IGP who is well aware of the sensitivity of the matter should be advised to set up a special investigation team to conduct a thorough investigation into the individual cases.
“That after thorough investigation, the cases that are federal offences or fall within the FCT will be prosecuted by the office of the HAGF while those that are state offences will be transferred to the respective states for prosecution.”
Meanwhile, the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr Dayo Apata (SAN), said on Wednesday that the recommendations of the panel for the prosecution of indicted SARS operatives would be implemented by the AGF office.
Apata, who represented the AGF at the inaugural sitting of the Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations by members of the disbanded SARS in Abuja, said the AGF and state Attorneys-General, had already scheduled a meeting on how to fashion out the strategy for the prosecution of the cases, most of which he said were state offences.
He said, “The coming weeks will be full of activities. The Attorney-General of the Federation will be meeting with states’ Attorneys-General because some of the offences are state offences.”
