#EndSARS: We Must Stop Funding Corrupt Security Agencies In Nigeria – UK Lawmaker

Kate Osamor, a member of the United Kingdom parliament, has asked the country to look for other ways to contribute to the development of Nigeria instead of financing ‘corrupt’ security agencies.

Osamor said this during the parliament’s debate on the #EndSARS crisis on Monday.

The MP said the government should look beyond sanctioning Nigeria and pay close attention to social intervention and welfare programmes.

She was particular about the UK-funded training for former operatives of the disbanded special anti-robbery squad (SARS) which she said went on despite previous indictments of the squad.

The UK reportedly trained SARS personnel for four years through the CSSF-funded Nigeria Policing Programme, which ended in March 2020.

Describing the #EndSARS crisis as “regrettably serious”, she Implores the government to focus on anti-corruption programmes.

“Today, we need to consider how the government responds to both the movement itself and the violent actions of the Nigerian regime,” she said.

“We must also take this opportunity to look beyond sanctions into how development funding is spent in Nigeria.

“Instead of funding corrupt security agencies and investing in projects which do not benefit ordinary Nigerians, we need a new focus on poverty relief and anti-corruption programmes.

“At the very moment in which Amnesty International had declared SARS units to have been involved in extra-judicial killings, corruption and torture, the government was using the budget to train and equip those units.”