From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Edo State Judicial Panel of Inquiry for victims of SARS and related abuses, yesterday, ordered that the Chief Superintendent of Police, Tope and Chief Superintendent of Police, Balogun, both of Ogida Division, Benin City, to appear before it on December 17, 2020 to explain their roles in the alleged assault and extortion of one Mrs. Patience Okundaye, 61.
Okundaye told the panel that some group of persons foiled an attempted attack on her son and that one of the hoodlums was apprehended and handed over to the police but due to their negligence, the suspect escaped with handcuffs while still in their custody.
She said: “On January 5, 2019, some group of boys wanted to attack my son but with the help of some youths in the area, they were able to apprehend one and took him to the police station but for sometime the police complained that the boy they arrested and brought before them had an injury.
“So, the police took the boy to the police health centre with handcuffs on his hands but less than 45 minutes later, they called my son that the boy on handcuffs had escaped.
“Then the police called us to the station and getting there, we found out that the boy had actually escaped.
“So, I wrote to the DPO that being that the suspect has escaped, that our lives were no longer safe.
Okundaye, who brought a plasma TV set to the panel to play the recorded video of how the disbanded SARS raided her house and assaulted her, said they constantly turned her into an Automated Teller Machine.
The chairman of the panel, Justice Ada Ehigiamusoe, however, ordered the said officers to appear before the panel on December 17.