I Didn’t Try To Stop President Buhari From Ending SARS – Femi Adesina

Chief Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected allegations that he attempted to prevail on the federal government not to scrap the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

An online newspaper had claimed that Adesina attempted to prevail on the federal government not to “surrender to Twitter warriors.”
Nigerians had taken to Twitter, other social media pages and also adopted street protests to demand the immediate disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a controversial unit of the Nigeria Police Force.

The government eventually submitted to the wish of the people on Sunday, 11th October when the IGP announced the immediate ban of SARS.

However, an online news report claimed the ban should have happened since Friday but Mr.Adesina prevailed on the government not to honour the peoples’ demand.

But Adesina in a statement on Sunday after the viral claims has rejected the story, describing it as evil, fake, and targeted at discrediting him.

He wrote: “While the FSARS saga lasted, I did not say a word on it, whether publicly or privately. Why? It was not within my brief. It rested squarely with the Nigeria Police Force, which has its own spokesman.

“For the online publication to have cooked outright falsehood against me shows the riot that is going on in that space, in the name of journalism.

“The brain behind the blog had always twisted stories against me and his former employers would testify that I had officially reported him about twice, till I then declined to grant him interviews again.

“The publication should please be treated as what it is: lie from the pit of hell. A concoction, falsehood from a diseased mind, bent on causing disaffection against other people.”

A false story designed to malign me is making the rounds. It says the President was to have scrapped SARS on Friday, but was prevailed on by me not to do so, as government cannot bow to ‘Twitter warriors.’ Evil. Fake. A concoction from the very pit of hell.

— Femi Adesina (@FemAdesina) October 11, 2020