The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry for Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters Tuesday, heard how the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) tortured and paralyzed a trader and phone dealer, Mr Ndukwe Ekekwe.
Ekekwe, who is confined to a wheelchair, told the nine-man panel that he sustained a severe spinal cord inquiry after he was thrown off a two-storey building at the Alaba International Market by SARS officers.
The victim, who had no legal representation, was only accompanied by his aged mother, as he narrated his ordeal before the panel in pidgin English.
Speaking, Ekekwe said that he was arrested at the Alaba International Market on February 16, 2018 around 2pm by the SARS operatives without charges.
According to him: “The fellow traders at the market asked the policemen to show their identity cards before handcuffing me.
“But rather, they immediately removed their SARS T-shirts and began to shoot and everyone ran away. I asked them to tell me what crime I committed and they said it was an order from the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).
“I was handcuffed in one hand because they noticed I wasn’t a troublemaker. But On our way, they stopped at Igando and came down from the car and began talking to each other.
“I used my other hand to reach for my phone to try to call my mother and the Inspector saw me. He approached me and asked who gave me the guts to make a phone call and he took the phone, stepped on it and destroyed it.
“He stabbed me on my wrist and back and I was hit on the head with the butt of a gun and beaten. They collected the N58,000 that was for my shop,” he said.
Ekekwe said he was taken to the SARS office at Ikeja, Lagos and at midnight he was stripped naked, taken to a torture chamber where he was beaten and tortured.
He noted other SARS officers who were torturing other individuals also joined their colleagues in torturing him.