‘I became paralyzed after SARS officers pushed me from a two-storey building’ trader recounts

A Nigerian trader known as Ndukwe Ekwekwe has shared the sad story of how he became paraplegic after some SARS operatives threw him from a two-storey building at the Alaba International Markey.

Narrating his experience with police brutality at the hearing of the Lagos State Judicial Panel, Ndukwe revealed that SARS operatives arrested him on February 16 without any charge.

In his words,

“They immediately removed their SARS shirts and began to shoot and everyone ran away. I asked them what my crime was and they said the arrest was an order from the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).

I was handcuffed in one hand because they noticed I wasn’t a troublemaker. On our way, they stopped at Igando and came down from the car and were talking.

I used my other hand to reach my phone to try to call my mother, but the Inspector saw me, 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 added that SARS took him to a place at midnight where the beat and tortured him and even threatened to shoot him dead.

“I was left there till evening and I didn’t know my crime and till now I don’t know my crime. They kept saying that the intelligence report is on me.

At the night of that day (Feb. 17, 2018), I was taken to my three shops where I sell phone accessories.

They took away my goods worth N15million. I began shouting to attract attention and the commander told them to take me to the top of the two-storey plaza and I was thrown down from the building.

The SARS officer that threw me from that building is Hamza Haruna. They took me back to their office in my injured state” he said.

He added that despite being paralyzed, the SARS operatives did not take responsibility of his medical expenses and he had to sell his house and other properties to foot his medical bills.

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.