By Michael Ofulue
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Policemen in Ondo state have applauded the Acting Inspector General of Police. Mr Mohammed Adamu, for his initiative of decentralising the operations of the  Special Ant-Robbery Squad (SARS) across the country.

IGP Adamu had on Monday announced the decentralization of SARS at a meeting with commissioners of police and above, at the Force police headquarters in Abuja.

Speaking with The Hope Metro,  a cross section of officers, rank and file of the  state police command said the  IGP’s order and directive on SARS will no doubt help to remove multiplicity of outfits in the Nigeria police force and restore order in every act of policing.

According to them,  the police helmsman did  not only decentralised SARS, but  also went further to disband all Special Investigation Panel (SIP) ,and Special Tactical Panel (STSP) including the Quasi-investigation and operations units of the force.

They said the new development would help to discourage the proliferation of multiple outfits competing for operation space in unprofessional manner by policemen in the cause of discharging their lawful duties  especially in protecting lives and property, maintenance of law and order in the society.

“There have been duplication of duties due to establishment of various security outfits .But with the present arrangement, the SARS operations in every state will now  be under the state police commissioner, while SARS operatives at the Force headquarters in Abuja will be under the deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence  Department (FCID).

“Before now, the current development operations of SARS were centralised at the Force headquarters which changed it  from Special -Anti-robbery Squard (SARS),  to Federal Anti-Robbery Squard (FSARS) and this has rendered the operation of the outfit ineffective, as most state police commands have their own Ant-Robbery units, thereby creating duplication of duties and investigations.

“These realities informed the decision of IGP to centralise the unit and disband other special security outfits in the force .we hail the police boss and we all pledged to support him in his quest to bring professionalism to the force through intelligence led policing with international best practices.

In a related development, the state police command has said it is determined to sustain the existing peace being enjoyed at the moment attributing the low crime rate in the past few weeks to the new security strategies it adopted to curtail crime and criminality in the state.

The Police Public Relations Officer,  Mr Femi Joseph, who spoke with The Hope Metro said the command, in collaboration with other security forces in the state, have adopted a measure that has paid off especially in tackling heinous crimes such as kidnapping, armed robbery amongst others.

He explained that the recent Military /Police and Civil Defence joint operations have been the brain behind the success story in the state, adding that necessary and useful information from  concerned members of the public  have also assisted in solving crime related issues in the state .

The police spokesman hinted that reports coming from various police stations across the state indicated  few cases reported in the last one week were minor cases.

“ The Commissioner of Police, Mr Olugbenga Adeyanju, gave a matching order to all the Area commanders , Divisional Police Officers (DPos),  to be proactive and to effectively man their respective jurisdictions and ensure hoodlums do not have their ways and this has help in low crime rate we have now and we are determined to sustain it ,” he said.

When The Hope Metro correspondent visited some police stations in Akure, it was discovered that few cases of  suspects involved in minor offences such as OBT and civil related matters were reported, while  some of them are already charged to court or settled out of court.