The Oyo State Police Command had on 10th of November, 2020, commenced psychological evaluation of personnel of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) as instructed by the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adam, in partial fulfillment of the 5 point agenda of the EndSARS protest.

This was made known to CEOAfrica in a statement by the Commissioner of Police for the state, CP Joe Nwachukwu Enwonwu and signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, SP.  Fadeyi Olugbenga.    

The psychological evaluation which was carried out by the newly constituted Police Counseling and Support Unit (PCSU), was ordered by the IGP on the 13th October, 2020 in accordance to section 8 (10) of the Police Act and regulations.

The statement disclosed that the exercise opened with the address of the CP Enwonwu thanking the personnel for the success stories recorded so far.

He also “condemned high handedness and unprofessional conduct of some of SARS personnel, but charged them to embrace human right based policing should they be posted to their new formation”.

 The exercise, which was divided into 3 stages, started with debriefing protocol questions where the officers “were questioned with the aim of ascertaining their level of mental balance towards the disbandment of the unit and to see if they are fit for possible deployment into other units”.

The second stage, which was the medical examination stage, included taking urine samples from the officers for drug test in order to ascertain “whether the behaviour of the operatives is influenced by drugs”.

Following the results of the first two stages, the third stage which was the psychological evaluation stage, involved a team of experts handpicking those “who need intensive medical and psychological

The statement further read in part; “Inspector General of Police according to the Commissioner of Police is working hard to engender a police based on respect for fundamental human rights.

“The Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command, CP Joe Nwachukwu Enwonwu psc, enjoins the members of the public to make use of the Command Public Complaint Bureau (PCB), a unit under the Public Relations wing of the Command set-up to treat cases of Police unprofessional conduct, acts or omission.

“He urged the good citizens of the State to take advantage of the newly launched online platform for reporting such cases and promises to deal with erring officers.”

CP Enwonwu , while assuring the citizens of the state of the emergence of a better Police than has ever been seen in the history of the state, advised strongly that they should stop taking laws into their hands and imbibe the habits of reporting to the appropriate authority