Romanus Okoye
A 34 year old trader, Mr Ndukwe Ekekwe, yesterday told the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Enquiry and Restitution for Victims of Special Ant- Robbery Squad (SARS) related abuses and other matters, that he has the photograph and contact of the, investigative Police Officer (IPO) who threw him down from two storey building.
Ekekwe who accused Special Ant- Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives of throwing him down from two storey building that resulted in his broken spinal cord which confined him on a wheelchair, provided the contact to the panel and also tendered the photograph of Hamza, whom he said is the Investigsting Police Officer (IPO).
He said he got the photograph through the WhatsApp status of Hamza and added that he snapped it and then his mother went to wash it.
The petitioner disclosed this while he was being cross examined by the police counsel Mr Emmanuel Eze.
He said hr got the contact of Hamza, the IPO, which Hamza gave to him before he went to Lagos University Teaching Hospital LUTH.
He added that it was his mum that got the contact because he was down.
” This is the policeman that came to carry me, there is nothing that will make me forget” Ekekwe said while identifying Hamza’s picture.
” When I was handcuffed, how will I be able to snap him. They handcuffed one hand on a good day they were not supposed to handcuff me because I did not make any trouble with them, it was when people started asking what was going on that they handcuffed me”, Ekekwe said.
” I requested for their Identification card, instead they brought out tear gas and gun, when people started asking who they were, they said it was an order from above, they never told me the offence up till now ”
Ekekwe, said ” I have four shops and I sell phone accessories, if I see anything and I show the sample to my customers, if they are interested, I will buy them and sell them. When I brought out my phone to make a call, to my mother, the police quickly collected the phone from me. I know the station they took me to, it is Ikeja, I don’t know how to describe it but if they take me there I will be able to identify the police station.
” They brought me out at noon and broke my teeth during torture, I can only recognise the two people that came to arrest me, at the station other people joined in torturing me.
” They did not take me to the hospital, after the torture. I only spent two days in their custody. I was arrested around 2pm and by 8pm, they took me to my shop, on getting there more than 20 people were already on queue in front of my shop. They started carrying all my goods” Ekekwe said.
“As I was shouting to see if people could come to my rescue, the commander asked them to keep me busy so two of them took me away from my shop up stairs and one of them pushed me down at Alaba, in my shop, in the process I fell from the stairs”
The petitioner said he doesn’t know who pushed him down as he was handcuffed and there was no light. However, the police counsel Emmanuel Eze asked for an adjournment, on the grounds that SARs had been disbanded, adding that the name the petitioner provided doesn’t look true and that the number he also provided didn’t go through.
The chairman of the panda, Justice Doris Okuwobi (Rtd), said this petition is just one out of 100, and that if the panel continues in baby steps, it will not be able to finish within six months.
She said in the interests of justice, the case will be adjourned till December 1, for continuation of cross examination.
