Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
A 30-year-old man, Mr Ayotomiwa Elegbeleye, has told the Ekiti State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing allegations of police brutality his 23-day ordeals in the hands of operatives of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Elegbeleye who appeared before the panel, yesterday, in Ado-Ekiti, said he was arrested by eight SARS operatives in his house in Ikere-Ekiti on January 7, 2020 at about 11:55pm and was taken to their custody where he was repeatedly tortured.
According to him, he was hanged with a rod in their custody while the officers tortured him with pressing iron for twenty-three days over his failure to offer N500,000 requested for him to be released.
During the sitting, the complainant who was brought from the Correctional Center showed members of the panel the bodily injuries he sustained from the hot pressing iron when he was in their custody.
“I was arrested by the SARS operatives around 11:55pm in my house in Ikere-Ekiti without them telling me the crime I committed. That night, I was taken to their office they beat and tortured me with pressing iron that I should confess being an armed robber. I was hanged up with a rod. I gasp for breath begging them to release me but they said I will only be released with payment of N500,000.