File photo: SARS
hehe...........As
the #EndSARS agitation gains momentum around Nigeria, some Nigerians
have spoken out about their horrific experiences in the hands of SARS
operatives.
Nigerians assaulted by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad officers share their stories with PUNCH
‘SARS men hit me with a gun, passed my pants around’
It was July 15 last year and I was a student at the Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife, Osun State at the time. I was attending a friend’s
elder brother’s wedding. We had booked an OAU staff bus from Ile-Ife to
the wedding venue in Ilorin, Kwara State.
On the way, we were stopped by four SARS officials on black
T-shirts and jeans. Their Hilux van was parked on the other side of the
road. Two of them crossed to the side of the road where our driver
parked the vehicle. They pointed to the four of us to come down with our
bags. We thought it would be the normal ‘stop-and-extort’ but it was
beyond that. One of us, Aduke, was very sick. So, she sat beside a
gutter by the roadside.
One of the officers threatened to slap her for sitting down.
Meanwhile, they were already checking the bags of the guys. They asked
for our identity cards and we showed them our OAU ID cards. They
collected them and threw them into the back of their vehicle without
checking.
They checked my bag and brought out my pants. One of them, a
fair-complexioned guy, hooked his index finger into the strap of one of
my bras and passed it to his colleagues and jokingly asked about the
size I wear.
He also raised the pants and asked why I had G-strings if I wasn’t a
prostitute. An officer checked a bag of one of us called Dare and
picked his phone. He claimed that some pictures in the phone were
incriminating. They didn’t even allow Dare to explain anything to the
officer, who was still holding my pants, before they hit him with gun
butt. They told our other friends, Aduke and Akin, to leave immediately
or they would shoot them as they threw their clothes and bags at them.
About 7pm, they told us to get into the back of the vehicle. Dare
refused, saying he didn’t commit any offence. I was scared. They hit us
with the butt of their guns and handcuffed Dare’s hand to mine. My
offence was that I complained about the way they were passing my pants
around.
My friend’s head bled profusely and he looked tired. One of the
officers asked me to help him. He removed the cuffs from my hand. I took
the gown I intended to wear at the wedding and wrapped it round his
head. He cuffed my hand back to Dare’s after I had finished helping him
(Dare). They kept driving and it was getting dark. We couldn’t use our
phones as they had collected them.
After they drove for some time, Dare slumped against the body of
the vehicle. They eventually stopped in front of a deserted First Bank
in a small town. They told us to come down. The officer driving stopped
and they pulled Dare and me down from the back. I stumbled and fell on
Dare. In the process, one of them kicked me with his boot. They asked us
to give them money. We couldn’t object because they threatened to kill
us. I made a withdrawal of N10,000 from my account and I requested for
Dare’s PIN. I withdrew N30,000 from his account and we gave all to them.
They hit Dare as they collected the money from me. Blood flowed
from his forehead and back of his head. I cried as he was losing
consciousness. We were there for about 20 minutes before a vigilante
came to help us. He took us to a native hospital — Ola Eloquence
‘SARS officer tortured me for allegedly sleeping with his wife’
My story was all over the Internet on October 12 after a video
showing how I was battered by a group of young men who accused me of
having sexual affair with the wife of a SARS operative, Nagbama
Egboigbe, aka Smally, went viral.
I was humiliated by the SARS operative. I was not having an affair
with his wife as he alleged. The lady in question, Sarah, is just a
friend. I met her at Randeki Gold Hotel, Benin City, Edo State, two
months ago and that was where we became friends. It was a platonic
affair.
The day Smally met me in her house, she called me to come take her
in my car to her mother’s house. I was in her sitting room with her
younger brother when Smally barged in. She was in her room and he went
straight to her bedroom. Since I didn’t know him before, I approached
him to know what happened.
The next thing I saw was that he brought out a gun. When I saw the
gun, I was scared and could not talk to him. He left with one of my
phones, so I called the line and asked him to return my phone. He told
me to come so that he could confirm something from the phone. He told me
to meet him at a car wash.
When I got there, I asked him why he left with my phone and he told
me that he was married to the lady. I explained to him that I had
nothing to do with the woman and demanded the release of the phone. The
next thing I saw was a group of boys, who came out of his car and
started beating me up. I manage to lure them from an enclosed place
where they were beating me to an open area, so that if they wanted to
kill me, they would do so in public.
He later took me to Ugbor Police Station where he detained me
overnight and handcuffed me. The investigating police officer did not
take my statement. He said that Smally was his friend. He refused to let
my wife take my car home but impounded it at the station.
When the divisional police officer came the next morning and saw my
vehicle, he asked for the owner and they (policemen) told him that I
was the one but that I was detained for sleeping with a policeman’s
wife. The DPO rebuked them and ordered them to remove me from the cell
and bring me to his office to settle the matter. Sarah came and
explained everything to the DPO. When Smally came, the DPO warned him
never to go near me again because I did not have an issue with him. He
later told me to go home — Ese Idehen, Businessman
I’ve not seen my brother since he was arrested three years ago –Oladeni
I am a footballer and businessman. I make shoes. I am a brother to
Aliu Oladeni who got missing at age 17. We saw him last three years ago.
Some people came to our house on June 22, 2014 with sticks and
cutlasses. I was not around. They broke the door and damaged the
ceilings. They said they were looking for Aliu. They said they caught
one of his friends, Sodiq, who robbed the previous night and he named
Aliu as his partner.
My brother had gone to a viewing centre to see a football match the previous night and slept in the place.
Later that day, some family members, Aliu and me decided to go to
Igando Police Division. When we got there, we saw a crowd gathered and
Sodiq was there. A woman reported the robbery to the police. We asked
the woman if she saw Aliu when she was being robbed and she said no.
She said three robbers came to her house and she saw them because
they weren’t masked. The woman said it was while they were attempting to
escape that Sodiq was caught. It was after the mob tortured him that he
lied that my brother was one of his accomplices.
I told the police officers that I used to know Sodiq as Aliu’s
friend, until he left our area about a year ago. The police asked Sodiq
if Aliu was among his group but he didn’t say anything.
We were asked to pay N80,000 to secure the bail of Aliu who was
then held by the police. After the payment, they said his name could not
be removed from their list and that the case would be transferred to
Federal SARS.
We hired a lawyer to help secure Aliu’s release because we were
sure of his innocence. The lawyer later asked us to forget about the
case. A police inspector told my father that Aliu might not be seen
again. Till today, we are yet to see him.
It has been hard for my father to cope. We sold our family land to
pay for Aliu’s release. My mother passed on some months ago because the
situation was too much for her to bear — Muritala Oladeni, Footballer
‘A fellow SARS official killed my police brother’
My elder brother, Felix Yohanna, served with the Nigeria Police
Force for 15 years in Lagos before his transfer to Kaduna last year. He
was killed by his fellow SARS officers.
He joined Kaduna SARS and he was promoted to the rank of inspector
this year. We received a call that my brother went on an operation with
his team and the O/C of SARS. We heard that they were attacked by Fulani
herdsmen at a village in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State. The claim was that
my brother was shot by Fulani herdsmen.
We later received a call from Kaduna SARS office that my brother
went on an operation with his team to recover illegal arms acquired by
the herdsmen. A Fulani terrorist was arrested in connection with the
attack.
The Fulani terrorist operated in Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Niger
and Niger Republic. Last week, I learnt that a Fulani herdsman was
arrested with a police gun and he said that it was the police that sold
the gun to him. He confessed that the police killed my brother. My
brother was killed by his fellow SARS officer because he was against
taking a bribe to free the Fulani terrorist. They knew he might expose
them. Another thing that proved to me that they killed my brother was
that after they reported that he was killed by a herdsman, they brought
his mobile smeared with blood.
Angrily, I asked a deputy commissioner of police in the state how
they were able to recover his phone yet couldn’t recover his body. It is
four months and three weeks after his death but we are yet to see his
corpse.
I know the Lord will fight for us. My brother was sincere as a police officer — Ayuk Yohanna
SARS officers beat me mercilessly in my kids’ presence — Oparaekocha
They came to my house in the morning, looking for me and I
introduced myself. I demanded who they were. One of them just flashed
his identity card and informed me he was from SARS. After that, he
called two of his colleagues who were apparently waiting outside. Those
inside the room had AK47 rifles. My children were all in the house at
the time. I did not want them to see people with guns inside the house,
so I told the SARS men to move out.
I only told them to do so because I was worried about how my kids would feel if they saw armed men inside their home.
But the SARS operatives refused to move out, instead, they started
beating me. They were hitting me with their guns, I was brutalised and
they even tore my clothes.
At that point, I started shouting to draw the attention of my
neighbours. As this went on, I got in touch with the Chairman, Enugu
State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Mr. Rex Arum.
The officers also manhandled Arum when he got to my house. Afterwards, they handcuffed me and took me to their office.
Luckily for me, on getting to their office, the person in charge
knew me and he was aware of my innocence in the matter the officers came
to arrest me for.
He (their boss) told them to release me, adding that he knew I was
innocent because he had investigated the case. I was beaten up and
wounded for doing nothing.
They don’t do any investigation. In fact, the case that they got involved in was already in court.
People use SARS to settle scores — in most instances, where there
is a misunderstanding between two people, all it takes is for one of the
parties to know somebody in SARS. They will take sides against the
other person — James Oparaekocha, Journalist
Culled from Sunday Punch
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