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*IGP Adamu
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Ndukwe Ekekwe, a
34-year-old victim of police brutality, has narrated his experience with the
now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), to the Judicial Panel of
Inquiry set up by the Lagos State government.
Mr. Ekekwe, a businessman and shop owner at Alaba
International market, told the panel how SARS officers threw him from a
two-storey building leaving his spinal cord damaged.
Mr Ekekwe was wheeled into the panel sitting on
Tuesday by his aged mother.
Narrating his experience to the panel, Mr Ekekwe
said four SARS operatives visited his store on February 16, 2018 to arrest him
for an unknown crime.
The officers were led by one Haruna Hamisu and they
came in mufty, he said.
Mr Ekekwe, who
narrated his ordeal in pidgin English, told the panel that his neighbours
refused his arrest until the officers introduced themselves.
They brought out their SARS uniform before he was
arrested and taken to FSARS, Ikeja.
“I asked them what my crime was, but none of them
told me, up till this moment, I don’t know the offence I committed,” he said.
The
victim said while at the police station, he was beaten, stabbed in his hand and
on his back, tortured, and dumped in a cell where the inmates subjected him to
another round of beating.
Mr Ekekwe further
told the panel that the officers took him to his shop the next day, where they
broke into his shop, auctioned off his goods and allowed people loot many
items.
“I started shouting, I was shouting for help,” he
said.
Mr Ekwekwe said while screaming for help, some of
the officers took him to the second floor, where one of them pushed him off the
two-storey building.
The victim said his
spinal cord got broken and he was taken to the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital for treatment. Since the incident, he has been moving around in a
wheelchair, with support from his mother and siblings.
Doris Okuwobi, a retired judge heading the judicial
panel, admitted the hospital documents, X-rays, telephone numbers of the
indicted officers and other documents tendered by the petitioners as exhibits.
Mrs Okuwobi adjourned the case for further hearing
till November 13.
Governor Babajide
Sanwo-Olu had set up the panel to probe police brutality and other rights
abuses in compliance with the directive of the Federal Government following the
#EndSARS protests that rocked the country two weeks ago.
The panel is to determine, among other things,
adequate compensation for victims of police brutality for onward recommendation
to the state government.
Source; Premium Times
