Friday Olokor, Abuja
A complainant, Tony Duch, on Wednesday told the Independent Investigative Panel on Allegations of Human Rights Violations by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad how he and eight other suspects were unlawfully tortured, detained and imprisoned by the police because they were from Southern Kaduna.
A statement by the Head of Media, National Human Rights Commission, Fatima Mohammed, said Duch told the IIP-SARS that he and the other suspects knew nothing about allegations of conspiracy, assault and theft levied against them.
The counsel to the accused persons, Samuel Yusuf, informed the panel that on the day of the arrest of the suspects, a team of policemen came to their residential houses in Durumi area of Abuja and started shooting sporadically to their utter surprise.
He said, “Apart from the gunshots, arrests were made by the police and virtually all the people arrested were youths from Southern Kaduna, except few people from Idoma in Benue state.”
To prove his point, he said while the arrest was being made by the police, one Inspector Cornelius Agbo mentioned Southern Kaduna people as those he was targeting.
According to the complainant, Inspector Agbo stated that he will “deal with Southern Kaduna people so that anywhere they see him they will not play with him.”
Other complainants listed in the petition were Silas Daniel, Suleiman Yabganya, Mba Kibori, Richard Elisha, Moses Williams, Jonathan Tagwai and Gideon Yohanna.
Their counsel, Samuel Yusuf, informed the 11-member panel chaired by Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd) that one of the complainants, Moses Williams, had died.
The complainants had earlier prayed the panel for an order of N50m compensation on behalf of the victims for their unlawful arrest, torture and detention.
Yusuf stated that the complainants were only victims of circumstance as the actual persons who allegedly had issues with Inspector Agbo had left the scene where the victims were arrested before the inspector invited his fellow SARS officials to arrest them.
The police legal team led by DCP James Idachaba, in his cross-examination asked the complainant if he was also tortured while in prison custody and he answered in affirmative.
The matter was adjourned till March 24, 2021, for the police to open their defence.
PUNCH.
