From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
Over 2000 youths in Anambra Monday staged a solidarity protest support for the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Anambra State.
The Concerned Citizens/Non Indigenes of Anambra State who marched from various local government areas to the SARS headquarters at Awkuzu, condemned the call by some human rights groups to scrap the SARS.
The youths chanted solidarity songs holding placards with inscription in support of the police unit.
Leader of the group and the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Political Matters Mr. Emeka Okafor said that Anambra State was rated the safest state in the country due to the operation of SARS to safeguard the lives of the citizens of the state.
He said that federal government should not accept the call but should reform SARS and identify bad operatives in the system and sanction them, stressing that SARS has been fighting crimes such as kidnap and armed robbery in the country.
Okafor later handed over a letter to the representative of commission of police Mr. Chris Owolabi a Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration for delivery to the Inspector General of Police, the youths stand to allow SARS to remain in the state.
Also in his remarks, the State Chairman of Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) Mr. Ikechukwu Ezenwankwo said that scrapping of SARS is invitation for criminals who had escaped from the state to come back.