GLASGOW City Council has shown support for those protesting the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria.

Councillors have asked leader Susan Aitken to write to the UK and Scottish governments asking them to make representations to the Nigerian authorities.

They passed a motion – put forward by the SNP’s Graham Campbell and the Tories’ Ade Aibinu – which also included approaching Police Scotland to investigate the possibility of offering expert training, available at Tulliallan police college, to forces in Nigeria.

Mr Campbell asked that councillors recognise the “appalling casualties and loss of life among civilians protesting police brutality”.

“The abuse of civil and human rights by this armed police force in its various guises has gone on for decades,” he said.

“It has involved extorting money from citizens, kidnapping, even rape and illegal detention.

“It reached a crescendo over the last few months and since the beginning of October, demonstrations daily by the citizens demanding reform to policing have been met with violence.”

In Glasgow, hundreds of protesters gathered in George Square on October 24.

Mr Campbell said the council’s stand could “help to put pressure on the Nigerian authorities to respect the human rights of their citizens”.

An emotional Mr Aibinu said he had been contacted by someone who had three friends “murdered by what we now know to be Nigerian armed forces”.

“It’s good we are standing and saying no to brutal oppression and police brutality,” he added.