A man identified as Biola Olopade, has accused the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Magbon, Abeokuta, Ogun F-SARS of arresting his brother, Aliyu Olopade, unlawfully and detaining him for two months without allowing him to see his family members
Biola, who made the accusation before the Presidential Panel set up to hear and investigate complaints against the F-SARS, said his brother, was wrongfully arrested for murder, adding that the person who allegedly committed the crime was walking freely in the community, The Punch reports.
Narrating his brother’s ordeal to the panel, Biola claimed that the F-SARS officers had refused to arrest the culprit.
He said,:
“I was in Ibadan when one of our relations who stay with my brother in Igbesa called to tell me that my brother had been arrested by policemen during a raid and had been in detention for some days, noting that all efforts to get him out had proved abortive. He told me that other people arrested with my brother had been released.
“I came down to the F-SARS office in Abeokuta; when I got there, I saw some policemen at the gate and I told them that my brother was among the people arrested, but I was sent back on the grounds that it was late in the day. I went back there the following day in the morning; I was still not allowed to see him; I was told to go and look for the Investigative Police Officer in charge of the case to ascertain if my brother was among the people arrested.
“I was told that a fight broke out in Igbesa and in the process, someone was killed. The police came for a raid and my brother was among the people arrested. The two people that caused the fight ran away, and when one of them came back to the community, I went to report at the SARS office, but I was rebuffed.
“I called the OC SARS to tell him that the culprit called ‘Ijoba’ was back in town walking freely and that they should come and arrest him, but he only told me that he heard what I said.”
According to Biola, he did not report at the police station in Igbesa, because of the possibility that Ijoba’s friend would bail him and that since it was the officers in Abeokuta who arrested his brother, they should be the one to arrest Ijoba.
The IPO in charge of the case, Segun Omolegbe, however, denied the claim that Aliyu was not allowed to see his family members while in detention.
He said:
“I was called from the gate that someone was looking for Olopade Aliyu, I told them to allow him in and when I met him, I told him that I was the IPO in charge of the case before taking him to my boss. Aliyu was allowed to see Biola and he explained the incident to him.
“The following day, Biola and his father came to the office; I directed them to the OC and he instructed me to bring Aliyu; when I brought him out, my OC said he should explain everything that happened to his father and after explaining, his father left without saying a word. We did not see any family member after that day till the matter was charged to court.”
When the Chairman of the panel, Tony Ojukwu, called the OC SARS, Uba Adams, to ask why Ijoba had not been arrested, Adams said the unit had been trying to apprehend him.
“We are tracking his number; he is conscious of what he has done but we are trying to get him and we will,” Adams added.
When the chairman asked him why he did not seek the assistance of policemen from Igbesa to arrest the suspect, the OC said no one could be trusted, but assured the panel that Ijoba would be brought to book.
