Lauretta Onochie, social media aide of President Muhammadu Buhari, has labelled the call for an end to the Nigeria Police Force’s controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) as a “coordinated attack by cyber criminals”.
In her tweet on Sunday, Mrs Onochie claimed “unsuspecting innocent” citizens joined the call, although she conceded there were bad eggs in the much-criticised squad.
“I have no doubt that there are some staff of SARS who are unprofessional in their dealings with d public, same way we have unprofessionalism in d Army, Mainstream Police, Customs, Civil Service, Public Service, traders, Lawyers, Doctors, journalists, teachers, pastors, etc,” she wrote.
“But what is going on now, is a COORDINATED ATTACK BY CYBER CRIMINALS joined by UNSUSPECTING INNOCENT CITIZENS.
“This is not the first time. We must stand by our national institutions while working to improve their effectiveness. Thats what patriotism is about. NO SENTIMENTS.”
Onochie’s comments contradicted the position of the minister of sports and youth development Sunday Dare who had earlier in the day called for action against SARS.
Her statements also came prior to the ban which the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu placed on SARS from conducting routine patrols including stop-and-search.
SARS has been accused on numerous occasions of indiscriminate killings, harassments and arrests.
