Vandefan Tersugh, a former
commander of the dissolved special anti-robbery squad (SARS), says it is
suspicious for Nigerian youth to have a car worth N7 million.
Tersugh, who is a retired chief
superintendent of police, said this during an African Independent Television
(AIT) programme on Monday.
He said police officers,
including former operatives of SARS cannot detect crime by “mere seeing you” on
the road but they have to interrogate such persons to find out the source of
their income.
He was speaking in the light of
the recent nationwide protests against the anti-robbery squad accused of
excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests and, in some cases, extrajudicial
killings.
Many Nigerians have accused SARS
operatives of undue profiling and stereotyping leading to alleged harassment
and extortion of young people.
When he featured on the programme
monitored by TheCable, Tersugh said while working as a police officer, he would
suspect a Nigerian aged between 20 and 30 who was driving an expensive car and
would have to enquire about such a person’s background.
“The mandate of the policeman is
to detect crime and you can detect crime also through most of these
technologies coming on board,” he said.
“We were not trained during our
manuals to talk about cybersecurity and cybercrime, but today cybercrime has
become something very endemic in our society. And this can be done by asking
questions and examining some of these things physically.”
Arguing that police officers do
not need a search warrant in such occasions, he said the manner the person
replies the security operatives will determine their next line of action.
“If I stop you on the road and I
want to have a look at your phone, I want to see your Facebook, I don’t think I
have committed any crime because I am only asking you a simple question,” he
said.
“It is your answer that will lead
me to go beyond where I have started. I can’t detect crime by mere seeing you
but by asking you questions. I have seen you with a car, and now I have
assessed your age, and I know in Nigeria how difficult it is for someone who is
20, 30 to start having a car worth N7 million.
“I cannot, as a policeman, see
you there and assume something is not wrong with the way you are with the car,
except I am able to ask you a question and I know your background, your family
background, where you are working and where you got money to buy this car.”
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This was the man who ordered the Sars to search ppl phone and extort with POS
ReplyDeleteThis kind of thing can only happened in Nigeria. That a young man cannot drive car worth 7m but politician will drive car worth 500m and they see nothing wrong with it. God were did we get it wrong? Oh markzukarbej
ReplyDeleteIgnore him. He is a mad man talking nonsense. A dull man with no brain. Where is the place of intelligence. You just want to jump into the street and interrogate everybody that seem to be doing well. Abi what does he mean that police should stop and search in order to detect criminals?
ReplyDeleteBunch of idiots called police