By Gbenga Abulude (Politics and General Desk)
One of the suspected victims of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives, Mr Okoliaga Abunike was at the Panel of Inquiry and Restitution set up by the Lagos State Government, where he narrated how he was detained for 47 days and tortured.
According to Abunike, he subsequently lost some of his valuable properties to the operatives in the process.
Mr Abunike who presented his case before the retired Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel on Tuesday at its opening session, said he was arrested in 2012 by policemen from Ojo Police Station following a petition by his boss to the police that he embezzled company’s funds.
Abunike said he was beaten, embarrassed and paraded round Alaba Market by officers from Ojo police station before he was later handed over to SARS operatives for a worse treatment.
The father of five gave a g of graphic account of how he was detained at Ikeja for 47 days,
tortured by one Inspector Sunday aka Baba Ijapa on the orders of an officer named ASP Haruna to the extent that he lost two of teeth in the process.
He said, “My family didn’t know where I was. When they eventually knew and my mother and wife came to SARS office in Ikeja, they beat up my mother and wife in my presence.
“While I was in detention, they took over my house, they sold all my properties, including my Acura jeep, 17KVA generator, my inverter, my three blackberry phones and my land.”
After spending 47 days in SARS cell, Abunike said he was hurriedly charged before a magistrates’ court after a lawyer hired by his family petitioned on his behalf.
The Magistrate court however found him innocent of the crime. According to Abunike, he also filed a fundamental human rights violation suit against SARS after regaining freedom at the Federal High Court in Lagos in 2016.
According to him, the Judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba awarded N10m damages in his favour against the police and his former boss.
However, the judgement has not been paid till date as all efforts to enforce the judgement proved abortive since 2016.
Following this, the Panel of Inquiry and Restitution admitted a copy of Justice Buba’s N10m judgment as an exhibit and said its decision would be made know in 7 days.
The second case was that of Mr Ndukwe Ekekwere, who was brought to the hearing in a wheel chair by his mother.
His case could not be heard as it was adjourned to Nov 2, 2020 to allow the accused SARS personnel to be present at the hearing.
