The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation has said there is no sufficient evidence to pursue the prosecution of 33 indicted operatives of the disbanded SARS.
Jomog News Nigeria reports that the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation has said there is no sufficient evidence to pursue the prosecution of 33 operatives of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad who were indicted in the 2019 report of a Presidential Investigative Panel.
Therefore; the AGF’s office has asked the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu, to set up “a special investigation team” to conduct “thorough investigation” into the cases.
This is contained in a report of a committee set up by the AGF, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), to review the individual cases recommended for prosecution by the special presidential panel.
According to Punch; its correspondent on Friday obtained the excerpts of the report from a top police source.
The Presidential Panel led by the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Mr Tony Ojukwu, had between 2018 and 2019 probed complaints of brutal activities of SARS and had submitted its report to the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), on June 3, 2019.
The report indicted a total of 35 police operatives in 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory for various rights violations 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.
The report recommended 33 for prosecution, and punishment, including sanctions like reduction in rank and dismissal.
It also recommended that 57 victims be paid about N249m as compensation while the police should tender public apology to 35.
The NHRC on October 19, 2020 submitted the report to the AGF accompanied with a specific list of those recommended for prosecution.
But after reviewing the panel’s report, the committee set up by the AGF said the report “does not meet prosecutorial needs” as it was said to be lacking in vital exhibits, such as “medical evidence and statements of the suspects”.
The report which also 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”, listed three actions that “must be taken in earnest” for the AGF office “to be able to successfully implement the panel’s recommendations”.
Among the conditions 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.
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.”
