Mike Okiro, a onetime Inspector-General of Police, IGP, has cautioned against the ban of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Okiro said the squad should be rebranded and refocused for effective service delivery rather than being banned.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on Thursday, the former IGP said the ban of SARS would lead to more robbery activities.
According to Okiro, robbers would be happy at the ban of SARS.
“The police management should go to the drawing board and retrain personnel of the SARS as it will be counter-productive to disband them.
“You cannot throw away the baby with the bath water, if they have deviated from what they were established for they should be retrained and refocused,“he said.
“Armed robbers will be happy that there is no more SARS in the country but are Nigerians ready for that, “he said.
He said that the squad had derailed from the primary purpose of tackling armed robbery that it was established for.
“Members of the SARS are doing things that are different from their training,“he said.
He called for stiff punishment for any member of the squad who violates the code of conduct to serve as a deterrent to others.
