“NDLEA SWAT”: Social Media Erupts As SWAT Teams Overstep Bounds

Social media spaces have erupted after officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency were spotted harassing commuters in SWAT uniforms in some parts of the country on Monday, December 21st, 2020.

NDLEA is Nigeria’s premier drug enforcement agency charged with the responsibility of apprehending and punishing persons culpable of illegal drug use and distribution.

The drug enforcement agency, however, have hitherto, not been operating with SWAT uniforms in the past, and Nigerians are apprehensive that it may not be a co-incidence that shortly after the rogue police unit, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was dissolved to become a Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT), security operatives have now assumed the identity under the aegis of NDLEA.

Nigerians have also cried foul over what echoes as unauthorized highhandedness after some of the SWAT officers, who have no business searching the mobile phones of commuters, were caught on camera rummaging through the mobile phones of motorists, much in the spirit of the defunct anti-robbery squad.

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The is growing sense of fear that this SWAT team, though operating under the auspices of NDLEA, could be replete of the rogue police officers many Nigerians gave their lives for during the recent #EndSARS protests across the country.

Below are some of the reactions on Twitter.