NANS Threatens Protest Over Police Squad Activities

National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has raised the alarm over the alleged “nefarious” activities of members of Dragon Squad, a police unit in Ogun State.

According to a statement signed by the national president of NANS, Ladoja Olushola in Abuja, the squad claimed to be established by the Office of the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos State, has continued to perpetrate harassment and intimidation against the residents and students of Abeokuta, on the pretext of going after “Yahoo Boys.”

Olushola added that the squad being led by one DSP Akeem Adeyemi, has its office in the Laderin Estate in the state capital, where several innocent people were being detained.

He said that the DSP, who was part of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and Zonal Intervention Squad (ZIS) located in Obada-Oko Area of the state, has continued to lead his team to terrorise, extort, detain and raid the homes of residents illegally.

The NANS national president further stated that the squad, apart from arresting and detaining Ogun residents who are majorly youths and students, has been acting as security backing to suspected land grabbers who invaded part of Ita Oshin and Oke Ata communities in Abeokuta, to unleash mayhem and wreak havoc.

He noted that despite several complaints made by the residents to the office of the Commissioner of Police in Ogun State, the “heinous activities of the Dragon Squad have continued unchecked”, calling on the Inspector General of Police to urgently intervene and rein in the terrors of the DSP and his team.

Olushola disclosed that the senior police officer claimed that his squad was sent by the AIG in charge of the Zone 2, Onikan to Ogun, hence, the Commissioner of Police in the state cannot interfere with his operations.

He maintained that the excesses of the police squad have spread fear in the hearts of Ogun residents, particularly students and their parents who had either been detained or forced to cough up an exorbitant sum of money.

Olushola observed that the Gestapo style of operations of the squad, is gradually bringing back the inglorious era of SARS’ brutality and inhumane treatment meted out to the people.

While reiterating NANS’s call to the IGP to order the AIG in charge of Zone 2 in Lagos, to disband the Dragon Squad in Ogun, Olushola declared that the student body will mobilise students and stage a massive protest against the “nefarious and illicit activities” of the squad.

He further expressed dismay that a police officer whose notorious and obnoxious activities in Ogun State largely contributed to the disbandment of the defunct SARS and ZIS, could be assigned by the AIG to surreptitiously revive SARS modus operandi in the state.

The statement reads further: “NANS has viewed with dismay and unpleasantness, the nefarious and atrocious activities of members of a police unit, dubbed Dragon Squad in Ogun State. The squad being led by one DSP Akeem Adeyemi, has not only been terrorizing residents of Abeokuta, especially students, who have fallen victims, it has become a ready-made tool of oppression in the hand of land grabbers in the state.

“By next week Monday, NANS will mobilize and march in protest to the office of the Inspector General of Police in Abuja; the National Assembly and the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Police Service Commission office, in order to call their attention to the aberration and siege on the innocent people of Ogun, courtesy DSP Adeyemi and his team”.