Suspects “disappearance” in SARS custody rises concern .

 

This was a story I published in National Mirror Newspaper  in 2015 .

Read till end you will see the forwarded message 

 

----- want IGP to investigate extra-judicial killing , torture 

By Patience Ogbo 

Family members of suspects detained in SARS custody are  calling on the Inspector General of Police Mr. Solomon Arase to investigate the “disappearance” of their relatives arrested by SARS operatives.

One of the complainants Mrs. Bose Bajulaye, 56  has written a petition to the Inspector-General of Police, through a Lagos based nongovernmental  organization Society For Love and Justice(SLJC).

Mrs Bajuilaye who spoke with our correspondent said her 34 year old son, Joseph Bajuilaye was allegedly killed by SARS operatives after he was arrested over allegation of  stealing a tricycle .

 “My son confessed to stealing the tricycle and stated that he used the proceeds to rent an apartment through an estate agent, Mr. Oluwalopese of 118, Isuti Road, Odo, Igando, Lagos.

“The estate agent confirmed that men from SARS Ikeja brought my son to his office in September 2014  and he was made to refund the sum of N160,000 my son paid for the apartment. He said he made the refund at SARS office at Ikeja  but to my shock, SARS operatives who have been denying that my son was in their custody, informed me that my son was killed when he was attempting to flee when they took him out for  investigation. How can he attempt to escape  when they chained him with handcuff  ? Why  would they shoot and kill him? I feel that the SARS operatives led by the former OC Abba Kyari  are hiding my son somewhere and they are lying that they killed him. I cannot come to term that he was killed when attempting to flee. I expected SARS operatives to charge him to court for stealing   because I cannot support his bad behavior but for them to tell me that they killed him is unbearable for me. If they had charged him to court, which is the normal process, there is a possibility that he can repent  and become a reformed person in prison but they are claiming that he is dead . I am devastated . I want the IGP to investigate  my son’s disappearance and if indeed they killed him, those policemen should be made to face the law for murder .”

Doctor Adeolu Olusodo the president of SLJC expressed sadness over the alleged killing of Joseph.

He said “ Nigeria is not a banana republic where anything goes. There are laws guiding our country. SARS operatives have no rights to engage in extra-judicial killing. We are calling on the police authority to look into the killing of Joseph  while in SARS custody. The reason they gave for killing him is not convincing. We are demanding that the police authority sets up a panel to  investigate   his murder”

Also, the family members  of a suspected Kidnapper Afam Nriezedi  has gotten a court order to force SARS detectives to bring their brother Afam to court after efforts by the family and their lawyer to see him had proved abortive for months.

Before the family got the court to intervnene, they had written a petition to   the IGP and  president Muhammadu  Buhari to order SARS operatives to unravel the mystery behind  their brother’s whereabouts since he was arrested last year by SARS operatives earlier in the year . 

According to Rita Okoro Nreizedi sister, Nriezedi    was arrested along side  four other  suspects Kelvin Igah, 39; Ogechi Igah, 32; Victor Igah 35; and Chukwuma Kingsley, 43 over the  kidnap of one Chief Idowu Coker, owner of Dapsey Oil, where they collected a N20 million ransom .

According to the police, the suspects were arrested  by SARS operatives led by SP Abba Kyari, when they stormed the gang's hideout at Isheri-Oshun, Ikotun, and Lagos’ after the gang allegedly kidnapped a business man.

Okoro  in a petition through a nongovernmental organization Network For Police Reform in Nigeria(NOPRIN)  stated that “Afam Nriezedi was arrested  with the other suspects  whom he is now being lumped together with- contradicts the earlier police's account captured in the news report sponsored by SARS indicating that Afam Nriezedi's sisters were held hostage by SARS operatives who forced them to take them to a hospital in Ikorodu where he had gone for surgery and where he was arrested. Later they said other suspects during interrogation at SARS,  confessed that Afam Nriezedi was the mastermind who led them to kidnap the two oil dealers. Afam Nriezedi,  had spent   months in unlawful detention, none of his family member or a lawyer has been allowed to see him. Why has it been difficult for SARS to charge him to Court with the evidence they claim they have or disclose his whereabouts to his family and legal representative. After our complaints, a ‘police team from Abuja’ approached us and told us to meet them in a hotel in Lagos. The policemen said we should make a false statement changing the facts of the case and we refused. Why did SARS initially tell us that he was wanted for allegedly being in possession of 4 AK47 rifles belonging to the police and later made a volte face causing the publication of a news report that he was an informant to a kidnap gang?” 

NOPRIN in its petition to the police authority  accuse SARS of extra –judicial killing of suspects in their custody  .

One of such cases of extra – judicial killings by the police   according to NOPRIN NOPRIN   was the alleged killing of one Mr. Eze Okon by SARS operatives conducting a raid in Lagos.

 A petition by NOPRIN detailing how Okon was allegedly killed stated “On March 8, 2013 some operatives of SARS, Ikeja after six hours of drinking alcohol at Olak's Hotel, shot and instantly killed one Mr. Eze Okoro in front of his residence at No. 1, Oguntolu Street, by Meiran Bus Stop, Alagbado, Lagos. The victim had just returned from work and was seating out with his wife and other neighbours in front of their residence, close to the hotel, when the alcohol-soaked operatives emerged from the hotel and started shooting sporadically, created panic among the residents and in the pandemonium, one of the officers accosted Mr. Okoro who joined others to seek cover. Despite his explanations that he was a resident, pointing to his house, the operative shot and murdered the businessman in cold blood.

In an initial but unsuccessful bid to cover-up, SARS sponsored the publication of a news report claiming that the victim was killed by armed robbers who engaged them in a shootout. Witnesses later narrated a different account of how Okoro was killed, contradicting SARS”.

Noprin further gave a detailed account on the alleged killing of one Mrs Fumilayo by SARS operatives in Ogun State .

“ Mrs. Funmilayo, a mother of three was killed by the police in Sagamu, Ogun state while taking refuge in a bush to avoid being caught in the cross fire between the police and an armed robbery gang. The police shot the woman after the shootout without listening to the unarmed woman's explanations that she was a staff of a nearby Demirs poultry farms. She further explained to the police that she was on her way to buy fuel for the Farm's generator before she ran into the bush to avoid being hit by a bullet. A witness- one of the vigilante members who joined the police to engage the robbers, said that  'police tied some amulets and charms to her arm before bringing her out from the swamp. Then they shot her by the side after bringing her out to give the impression that she was killed during a shootout. We have the picture taken before they tied the arms band and shot again.' She was paraded, with her charms-laced body, as the leader of the robbery gang.

Giving further accounts of SARS alleged killings, NOPRIN  report stated 

In Benin City, on November 24, 2013, police officers of the Edo State police command, extra-judicially killed Mr. Samuel Imaikop, a well know farmer with his three hired labourers on their way to his farm at Ute village. The police paraded them as armed robbers, in spite of evidence contradicting police's claims that the victims were killed when they engaged them  in a shootout.

 Also, the case of one Ekenechukwu Uwakwe, a motorcycle spare parts dealer in Lagos who had travelled to his village in Southeast Nigeria for his traditional marriage was informed that he was wanted by SARS Ikeja for armed robbery, kidnapping and fraud. In his absence, his sister and her Pastor who visited her were arrested and detained until Ekenechukwu returned to Lagos on January 4, 2014 and presented himself to SARS, confident that he would clear himself of the allegations against him. SARS collected the sum of N175, 000 to release his sister and her Pastor and then detained him. By the time the information reached NOPRIN on October 9, 2014 he had spent 10 months in SARS cell without being charged to court and denied access to family and legal counsel. NOPRIN contacted the O/C SARS and inquired about the case. The O/C SARS, after inquiry, told NOPRIN that Ekenechukwu would be charged to Court that same week. He was eventually charged to Court without evidence.

Okechukwu Nwanguma  the National Coordinator of NOPRIN while commending the police for reducing crime in the country, however calls on the police authority to check increasing  cases of torture and extra-judicial killings among officers and men of the Force especially by SARS detectives . 

  “NOPRIN appreciates and commends the efforts of the police to tackle crime and criminals and to secure the society in the face of inadequate resources, equipment and motivation. However, it is NOPRIN's conviction and contention that the police cannot continue to commit crime in order to solve crime. Fighting crime is not a substitute to respecting human rights and the due process guarantees for crime suspects and persons under custody.

NOPRIN's contention is that SARS should not continue to trample on the Constitutional rights of detainees by detaining them indefinitely and denying them their right of access to family members, legal counsel and doctors. The law requires of the police to promptly  grant suspects bail or charge them  to Court if they have credible evidence to secure conviction; The police cannot also continue to hide under 'national security' as a pretext to circumvent the law, commit crime, abuse their powers,  violate human rights and undermine the due process and  rule of law.  The police, as a creation of the law, charged to enforce the law, cannot go outside the law to enforce the law.SARS has, in their anti crime operations, become notorious for breaching all legally established procedures for arrest and detention, as well as international human rights standards for the treatment of persons in custody. Lagos State Police Command and SARS, in particular, should focus on resolving these puzzles and contradictions, rather than resorting to instigating newspaper reports attempting to divert attention by accusing 'influential person' of 'being on the neck of the Lagos state Police and government to release a kidnapper'. It is for the Court, not the police, to determine the guilt or innocence of a crime suspect”  

Following countless petition to the IGP over the alleged unlawful killings and rights abuse by SARS detectives, the police authority said it has taken steps to check abuses of suspects in SARS custody.

The Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Investigation, Dan’azumi Doma, made the disclosure during a routine visit to Lagos .

DIG Doma stated that the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, has split the Special Anti-Robbery Squad into two units with a view to checking human rights abuses.

The DIG said   “The I-G has just revisited the operational method of SARS across the country either at the federal or state level.

“He is doing a lot to ensure that human rights abuses are corrected.

“If you are in touch with the Lagos State Police Command, based on reactions by members of the public, the officer in charge of SARS was redeployed to Abuja.

“The I-G said the same officers cannot make arrest and investigate the same case, so, he split SARS into two units.

“One is to be in charge of operational activities, while the other section will investigate the case.

“The people who go out to make arrest will not be the same people to carry out the investigation,’’ he said. 

“By doing so, you are isolating the operational men from human rights abuses and other allegations. This thing is going to flow down from federal to states, including divisions if such units exist at that level.’’

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Patience Ogbo <patogbo1@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 7, 2015, 5:25 PM
Subject: I resend the story
To: onyeverest <onyeverest@yahoo.com>