Ex-SARS Officers Denied Asylum As Canadian Judge Declares Nigerian Police Criminal Organization

On the basis of his links to the ruthless Special Anti-Robbery Squad and the Nigerian Police Force as a whole, a Canadian judge has refused asylum to a former member of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

SARS was decommissioned last October after a nationwide outcry over the agency’s decades of coercion, bribery, theft, and extrajudicial killings of over 100,000 people. The abolition of the infamous squad, however, was not enough for Judge Sébastien Grammond to accept Olushola Popoola’s asylum appeal, according to court records.

Mr Popoola had requested a judicial review of the decision of the Canadian immigration department, which had previously found him inadmissible into the country due to his membership in the Nigeria Police Force. Mr Grammond reached the decision on April 8 after Mr Popoola had requested a judicial review of the decision of the Canadian immigration department, which had previously found him inadmissible into the country due to his membership in the Nigeria Police Force.

Mr Popoola made a knowing and significant contribution to the crimes committed by the Nigerian Police Force, and I am dismissing his application because the decision-maker fairly evaluated the relevant factors for determining whether Mr Popoola made a knowing and significant contribution to the crimes committed by the Nigerian Police Force,” Mr Grammond ruled.

Mr Popoola worked for the police between 2002 and 2015, when he left to move to the United States, according to the court. He then crossed into Canada from the United States, where he was seeking asylum to settle permanently.

Mr Popoola claimed that he did not partake in the brutal brutality and other forms of crime that pervaded SARS during his service and that, as a result of his voluntary departure from the military, he should be treated as a civil ex-officer.

Mr Grammond, on the other hand, believes the former police officer was aware of SARS’ murderous and exploitative practices, even though he did not directly participate.

“Since Mr. Popoola fairly understood that the offenders he handed over to the criminal investigation department would be subject to human rights abuses while he was a member of the SARS,” the judge ruled.

“The tribunal found that he made a substantial contribution to the organization’s criminal purpose because he knew what could happen to the person under investigation.”