Undergraduate commits suicide over SARS harassment

AgegePulse Magazine

An undergraduate of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Seyi Akinade, has reportedly committed suicide.

The victim, in a lengthy post on Twitter before his death, said he could no longer live with the continuous harassment by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, which he claimed led to his decision to kill himself.

His stepbrother, Toye Salawudeen, who announced the death on the social media, told PUNCH Metro that the family did not know about Akinade’s ordeal until after his demise.

The deceased had narrated on his Twitter page, @Akinadeoluwa17, how he plunged into $20,000 debt after he was arrested by the SARS personnel, who allegedly extorted money from him.

According to the 23-year-old undergraduate, who was also a forex trader, his encounter with the SARS personnel gave him constant nightmares.

He had tweeted, “It happened again tonight, I had the same nightmare that’s been reoccurring for months now since the incident happened, same faces. SARS officials in their black uniform carrying us away in the dead of the night and I wake up with serious chest pain from fear of what I was about to experience.

“It happened on the 2nd of February 2020 I was in my hostel working on my post data slides because I had to present the next day when all of a sudden these SARS officials entered my room. It was around 10pm and I still had my generator on maybe that was why they came to my room first, they just collected my laptop and phones, my friends were also in my room, we were all told to dress up and come outside, one of my friends was given a dirty slap for practically not dressing up fast enough ‘what did we do?’ I kept asking.
“They didn’t say anything and they threatened to waste me if I didn’t stop asking silly questions. We were handcuffed like armed robbers, all 17 of us, we were squeezed into small cars like goats to the slaughter, and from camp Abeokuta, we were taken down to Ibara Police Station. 

Immediately we got there I decided to plead with who was in charge that I had a presentation in school the next day, that they should please let me go early because at that time it was 12 in the midnight already, he said I will pay 200k! Ha! For what?


“I told him to go through my phone that I am not a fraudster, that I am a forex trader and he went through my phone and my friends’ phone nothing was implicating there, except for the bank alerts and that money were not even mine, I told him they were investors money. I forgot to mention I opened a trade on my trading platform before they came to arrest us, I also pleaded with them to give me access to my phone so I can close the trade or something they thought I wanted to call someone and they slapped me for requesting for my phone, the trade kept running till the next day.

“I slept in a cell that night for doing nothing, police will slap you and beat you, and prisoners will beat you when you enter the cell too! I cried till the next morning not because I was sleeping in a cell for doing nothing, but because I was on a losing trade with thousands of $ on the line and also because I was going to miss my project presentation which cannot be repeated. I was paraded like a thief in the morning and they were asking us what we did, with tears in my eyes I said ‘nothing’ they still slapped me and told me to admit I’m a fraudster without having anything incriminating on my phone!

“That day I lost almost 20k$ trading and I missed my presentation in school. They still wanted to collect bail after beating and harassing us for nothing. Since then I’ve been in massive debt, I couldn’t complete my education and my life has been in shambles and suicide has been the only thought on my mind every day. So in case I hurt myself and anyone is curious as to why I did it. This is my story.”

Akinade’s death has led to the creation of the #justiceforseyi hashtag on the social media, with Nigerians calling for the prosecution of the officers involved.

He said, “Seyi was the quiet type and based on the kind of relationship we had, we were not very close. This morning (Wednesday), my mum called me that Seyi was dead and when I asked her what happened, she said he was vomiting and crying of stomach pain and asking for palm oil.

“He was rushed to three hospitals before he could be accepted, but he died this morning; we didn’t know what happened until I went to his Twitter page to check his last post and I saw his tweet and what he tweeted five days ago about what caused him nightmares. We want justice to be served and the police officers who caused this to be brought to justice.”

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said he was not aware of the case but would find out.

“I’m not aware of the matter, but there is no way policemen  from Ibara will go and arrest in FUNAAB, but I will find out,” he stated.

He had yet to get back to our correspondent on his findings as of the time of filing this report.

Punch

IGP disbands SARS satellite offices nationwide

AgegePulse

SARS Operatives

The inspector general of police Mohammed Adamu has ordered the disbandment of satellite offices of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) across Nigeria.

Deputy inspector general of police in charge of Criminal Investigations Department Peter Ogunyonwo made the announcement during a courtesy visit to the family of late Remo Stars Sports Club player Tiamiyu Kazeem in Sagamu area of Ogun State.

“It is those (SARS) satellite offices that IG has ordered that should be disbanded immediately,” Ogunyonwo said.

“For example, there’s one in Ikorodu. From what we heard, there’s another one in Ijebu-Ode; there’s another one in Obada Oko from where officers came to cause this mayhem. So, all have been disbanded with immediate effect and the CPs have been ordered to take over such offices.”

In recent times, the Nigeria police have come under criticism by members of the public due to persistent extra-judicial killing, extortion, illegal arrest and harassment of citizens by officers attached to the SARS unit of the police.

On Saturday, February 22, SARS operatives arrested the late Kazeem who was allegedly accused of being an internet fraudster in Sagamu.

The arrest which led to his death has been attributed to different claims by the police and his teammate Sanni Abubakar who was with him during the arrest.

“The SARS officer stopped Tiyamiyu Kazeem, insisting that he was a Yahoo boy. He brought out his identity (ID) card to identify himself as a player of Remo Stars FC, but the officer insisted on taking him to the nearest police station in Sagamu,” Abubakar said.

He accused the police officer of pushing Kazeem out of a moving vehicle which led to his death.

But spokesman to Ogun State Police Command Abimbola Oyeyemi said the footballer was arrested for always wearing military apparels without being military personnel. He also refuted eyewitness’s claims about Kazeem’s death.

“While taking the deceased in a vehicle to Abeokuta, the vehicle they were travelling in developed a mechanical fault and while the officer was trying to rectify the fault, Tiamiyu jumped down from the vehicle to escape,” Oyeyemi said.

“In his bid to run across the road, an on coming vehicle which is on high speed knocked him down and he died on the spot.”

While the police is yet to conclude its investigation about Kazeem’s death, the IGP has assured Nigerians of ensuring justice prevails.

The Nati

Protest as SARS officer kills Remo Stars captain

AgegePulse Magazine

AgegePulse, Remo Star, Sars

By ‘Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor and Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

There is palpable tension in Sagamu town, Ogun State, following the alleged killing of a footballer, Tiyamiyu Kazeem, the Assistant Captain of Remo Stars Football Club, a Nigerian National League side, by policemen attached to the State Anti-Robbery yesterday afternoon while returning home from the club’s weekend training session in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital. Eyewitness accounts at the scene of the incident alleged that the footballer, popularly known as Kaka, was allegedly chased by the SARS operatives before he was shot.

“The SARS operative labelled him as a Yahoo boy and started chasing him. Even when people who know him intervened and told them he is a footballer, they refused to let him be. They chased him until they shot him, wounding him fatally,” an eyewitness claimed. After shooting him, the officials ran away, leaving Kazeem to his fate. He was later rushed to Fakoya Hospital, Sagamu, by sympathisers, where he was pronounced dead.


The Remo Stars Football club announced Kazeem’s sudden passing away on their official Twitter handle. The Nigerian National League side stated that they are doing everything to investigate the cause of his death. “We regret to announce the departure of our assistant captain and defender, Tiyamiyu Kazeem (Kaka). The club is doing everything possible to investigate his ultimately death. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”

Angry residents took to the streets across the town to protest the murder of the footballer who many described as talented and hard working. A close friend of the deceased, Bolaji Soluade, who spoke with our correspondent, confirmed his untimely death and blamed the SARS operatives for the incident. According to him, one of the officers was apprehended by residents after the shooting but was rescued by other policemen before the mob could do him much harm.

Youths in Sagamu went wild with rage when the news filtered to them that the young man who was earlier in the day arrested in Sagamu alive without resistance, and taken to Abeokuta, was allegedly shot dead later by the police halfway into their journey to Abeokuta. It was learnt that quick intervention of senior police officers who moved in quickly to douse the tension saved Sagamu from turning into chaos. This is coming barely 48 hours after a similar protest broke out in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Thursday following the shooting of two Hausa traders in Olomoore Market by operatives of the Anti – Cultism Unit of the Ogun State Police Command.

Condemning what it called the unbearable excesses of the SARS operatives in Sagamu, the Pan Remo Forum (PRF), an umbrella body for socio-political groups in Remoland, said the death of Kazeem was “avoidable and needless.” In a release signed by its Organising Secretary, Lookman Banjoko, the forum called on concerned authorities to ensure that the killers of the promising footballer are fished out and punished appropriately.

The forum also condemned what it described as the tiring excesses of the SARS officers, who it accused of always oppressing the people of the town under the pretense of fighting crime and cultism. “This is just as we can categorically tell you that their interest lies more in the financial gratifications and exploitation they enjoy in the course of chasing Yahoo boys, real and imagined. We call on the governor and the police commissioner to rid Sagamu of these killers in uniform before it is too late,” PRF warned.

When contacted, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said nobody was shot dead by policemen. He, however, confirmed the death of a young man in Sagamu who he claimed was accosted by policemen on suspicion of a crime. According to the police spokesperson, the deceased was knocked down by an oncoming vehicle while trying to escape from the officers who arrested him.

The police spokesperson said the young man, whose identity he did not disclose, was accused of always kitting himself in full military uniform to harass and intimidate unsuspecting members of the public in Sagamu, which prompted a police inspector attached to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Abeokuta, to storm Sagamu alone and effected his arrest but while he was being taken to Abeokuta, the vehicle developed fault and had to park it by the roadside.

He explained that while the faulty car was being fixed, the suspect jumped out of the car and tried to run across the road, but a speeding vehicle, unfortunately, knocked him down and he died in the process. He also disclosed that the Commissioner of Police, Kenneth Ebrimson, had given directive for the arrest of the allegedly erring inspector for investigation to ascertain the level of unprofessionalism exhibited in his conduct towards the victim and recommend appropriate disciplinary action.

The NationOnline

Kolade Johnson: LASG arraigns killer cop for murder

AgegePulse Magazine

The Lagos State Government has arraigned a dismissed police officer, Ogunyemi Olalekan, allegedly responsible for the murder of Kolade Johnson, a 35-year-old man at a viewing centre in Lagos by shooting him with an AK47 rifle in the lower abdomen.

Olalekan, 45, a former Police Inspector was charged on Tuesday at an Ikeja High Court for murder in contravention of section 223 of the criminal laws of Lagos State 2015.

In reaction to the accused's not guilty plea to the murder charge, lead prosecuting Counsel and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Ministry of Justice, Mr. Yhaqub Oshoala Mr. Oshoala requested that Olalekan, who has been incarcerated at the Ikoyi Prison since his arrest continues to be remanded at the facility.

"We ask that the defendant continue to be detained in prison custody before the trial date. Our witnesses are available and we are ready to commence", Oshoala said.

Before adjourning the case till January 15, 2020, for trial and ruling that the accused be remanded at the Ikoyi Correctional Facility, the Presiding Judge, Justice A. J Coker told Mr. Ike Ezekwen, the defence counsel to ensure he explains to Olalekan the option of a plea bargain before the full trial commences.

Recall that Olalekan, a former Police Inspector at the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SACS) of the Nigeria Police Force, committed the offence at 5.10 pm on March 31, 2019, at Onipetesi Estate, Mangoro area of Lagos.

Prostitutes threaten to starve policemen of sex over incessant arrests

AgegePulse Magazine

Tony Okafor, Awka

Sex workers in Anambra State have threatened to starve policemen who patronise them over alleged harassment and arrest of their colleagues in major cities of the state.

One of the sex workers, simply identified as Kaamsi, who claimed to be a leader of the group in Umunze in the Orumba South Local Government Area of the state, told Saturday PUNCH on Friday that  her members in the state had decided to starve policemen.


Kamsi, a leader of the group of prostitutes, said they would commence the decision as from Monday next week.

She said, “These policemen constitute over 50 per cent of our customers, yet they come here at the garden to harass and intimidate us on daily basis.

“About two days ago, no fewer than 10 of our members here were arrested and taken to SARS office. They were maltreated and so dehumanised before they were granted bail and asked to pay through their noses before they regained freedom.

“This happens on daily basis here in Umunze, Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi, Ekwulobia, everywhere. So, we have decided that none of our members would ‘serve’ any policeman here in Umunze and the entire state.”

Asked whether the policemen came to them in their uniforms, Kamsi said, “We know them; we know almost all our customers. They don’t need to come to us in their uniforms to be identified.

“Brother, let me tell you, we get information here. All big men that come here, we know them up to their family level.”

Saturday PUNCH gathered that about a week ago, the Anambra Police Command raided brothels in various cities in the state and arrested no fewer than 120 persons.

According to our source, the police raided Morning Star Hotel, Amawbia, Awka South Council Area, arresting about 20 persons.

The source further said that on Sunday, the police raided Happiness Hotel in  Amanwayi, Amawbia at about noon, arresting about six women alleged to be prostitutes.

The source further alleged that the police also raided Dot4 Hotel, Mgbakwu and Bolin Hotel Nise, as well as another hotel in Ogidi, in the Idemili North Council Area, where about 60 persons were d.

Other areas raided, our correspondent gathered, were Amansea, Umunze, Onitsha and Ihiala.

Kamsi said, “The suspects were raided and bailed with N10,000 each. The police have used such raids for making money.”

Punch

SARS Harass, Detains Resident For 10 Hours In Agege



AgegePulse Magazine

As residents across the Lagos Mainland and other parts of the State continue to condemn the harassment extortion and illegalities of the operatives Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), recent developments show that the officers concerned are not ready to desist from the acts.

This is following a recent development in Agege community  Tuesday, July 31, 2018, where the operatives reportedly harassed and illegally detained a resident who was returning home from work.

According to the resident, Jonathan Godwin, he was apprehended by the officers along Dopemu, Agege Lagos Mainland, at about 9:15 pm but was driven around town and also detained at Area G Station, Ogba, Lagos Mainland, without having an inkling of his offense.

In his narration, Godwin said; “Yesterday, l was going home around 09:15 pm at Dopemu and l was harassed by the officers who called themselves SARS and TASKFORCE. They dragged me into their Black Maria without committing any crime nor explaining what I did. l was in the Black Maria till 3:00 am before they took us to Area G but the Area G officers said they cannot detain us.”

He continued saying; “They collected all our phones and money and a guy arrested alongside me told them that he works with the wife of the Commissioner of Police. He was beaten before he called the wife of the Commissioner of Police who asked him to give the phone to one of the officers but they refuse to answer him.

“At midnight, they took us back to Alabo Police Station in Dopemu but l when we got there, I noticed that the SARS and TASKFORCE vans were not to be found again but only the BLACK MARIA that took us there.”

Commenting further on the harassment received from the SARS officers, Godwin said; “All our phones and money were collected by the officers who called themselves SARS and TASKFORCE.”

He concluded saying “l was released this morning and many people are still in the cell. l swear to my father’s grave and assured them each one of them will be crying in their various houses by the special grace of GOD. Is this a country?”

Idris Aina 

Insidemainland

Robbery suspects escape from police cell with handcuff

Two robbery suspects, Rotimi Adeyeye and Adeoye Bukola, have reportedly escaped from a cell of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Ondo State Police Command.

It was gathered that the suspects allegedly broke into the house of one Samuel Arifalo in the Ijoka area of Akure, and robbed him of some valuables on April 30, 2018.

A source said they were later arrested and handed over to men of the Special Anti-Cultism Squad in Akure, who kept them in custody for 16 days.

They were said to have been arrested for cultism instead of robbery.

The source said, “Some residents of the area informed the state Commissioner of Police about the matter and the commissioner directed that the suspects be transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

“On Monday, the suspects escaped from police cell with handcuffs in their hands. Till now, the police have yet to get them.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Femi Joseph, said the command had started investigation into the matter.

He, however, said the suspects were not arrested for robbery, but for stealing and burglary, adding that the SARS officers on duty at the time of the escape had been arrested.

Punch