At the fourth day of sitting of the Lagos State Panel of Inquiry and Restitution set up by the state government to look into the allegations of brutality and highhandedness by personnel of the now-defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, which started at 11:00 am, Mr Ndukwe Ekekwe kicked off with his testimony.
Ekekwe said he was randomly arrested by SARS officers on February 16, 2018, without any valid reason, beaten up and then transferred to their office in Ikeja.
Beyond the beating, he mentioned he was stabbed at different parts of his body by the officers, and later taken to his shop at Alaba which they broke and started auctioning his products.
Thereafter, as he started shouting for help, he said the officers took him up a two-storey building and threw him down – an incident which caused him to break his spine.
Although he survived the incident, Ekekwe is now confined to a wheelchair.
He, however, told the panel that he would like to be compensated, as he also lost goods worth N15 million.
Last week, another petitioner, Okoli Aguwu, also shared grisly details of his ordeal in the hands of SARS officers stating that he spent about one and a half months in detention, and he was tortured to the point where he lost two of his teeth.
The panel is expected to bring justice to the victims of police brutality.
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