Fatimo Elegbede, a maize seller in Ajibawo community of Ogun State, on Thursday, told the Ogun State Judicial Panel on Police Brutality that her husband, Segun, was killed unjustly by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in the state.
In her petition, Elegbede said that her husband was shot and dragged away to an unknown destination by the SARS operatives when they stormed her place in Ajibawo in October 2016.
She added that the operation was led by one ASP Adeyemi Ganiu and, therefore, demanded ₦20m as compensation for the “unjust killing” of her husband, Segun.
Elegbede had filed a petition before Ogun State Judicial Panel on Police Brutality complaining that her husband was shot and dragged away to an unknown destination by the SARS operatives.
She narrated that SARS operatives stormed her place in Ajibawo for an operation led by one ASP Adeyemi Ganiu in October 2016.
Elegbede, who spoke through her counsel, Femi Aina, recalled that her husband died in SARS custody a few days after his arrest.
In an attempt to get justice for her husband, she said her lawyer had written several petitions to the police authority in 2016 and 2017, asking that an autopsy be conducted to unravel the mystery behind Segun’s death.
The lawyer’s petition, it was gathered, prompted the office of the Inspector-General of Police to give an order that the Ogun State Police Command should “contact the family for a post-mortem.”
However, the corpse was released to a nephew of the deceased, one Sunday Elegbede, who was said to have hurriedly buried him without the autopsy.
Speaking before the panel on why the autopsy was not conducted as ordered by the IGP, the Investigating Police Officer, ASP Aina Morenikeji and the Officer-in-Charge of the State CID, CSP Olabode Olufemi, told the panel that Sunday, who paraded himself as the family head, led late Segun’s three children; Tosin, Titi and Gbenga, to Eleweran, Abeokuta, to demand the release of the corpse without an autopsy.
The police officers mentioned that Sunday and the children of the deceased came with a court affidavit, wherein they confirmed that Segun was involved in illegal possession of firearms, pleading that the corpse be released without any need for a post-mortem.
But while being cross-examined before the panel, Sunday denied going to court to swear to an affidavit, adding that his uncle was never involved in illegal possession of firearms or any criminal activities.
Sunday, who said he could neither read nor write, explained that the papers he signed were given to him by the police.
He said, “I didn’t go to any court for any ‘paper’ and I didn’t give the police my photo.
“I didn’t tell the police not to carry out an autopsy on my uncle before they took me to the mortuary to see his corpse. It was after the burial that I said I would not allow them to exhume the body for any examination.”
In his closing remarks on Wednesday, Aina demanded that she be “compensated with a minimum of N20m, a maximum of N30m.”
