On Tuesday, April 10th 2018 there were reports and a video alleging that a citizen was beaten up by SARS officials along Haruna bus-stop, Ogba, Lagos which allegedly led to the victim’s death.
The Lagos state command has released a statement stating that the allegations are unfounded. According to the PPRO, Chike Oti, after carrying out investigations, they found out that nothing of such happened and the incident was also not reported at any Police station.
The statement reads;
The attention of the Lagos State Police Command has been drawn to the news making the rounds on the social media that SARS operatives, on Monday 9th of April, 2018, beat a citizen until he was dead.
Based on the video clip of the incident which went viral on the social media, the Command began an investigation into matter.
Part of its findings was that no such incident took place at Haruna Bus stop, Ogba on Monday 9th April,2018; there was no record of it being reported at any of the police formations within Ogba Area Command nor was it reported at any of the Command’s complaint platforms.
Besides the above, it is a common knowledge that such an incident cannot happen in the city of Lagos without an uproar at the venue of incident; it is in this regards that plain clothes detectives were deployed to enquire from the people living and doing business around the popular Haruna bus stop whether such incident ever happened in their area and not a few were embarrassed by such question because according to them it never happened.
The Command therefore wishes to advise the public to take unverified news emanating from social media platforms with a pinch of salt. Media houses of all categories are also advised to seek confirmation of information available to them from the police before pushing it out to the public.
SP Chike Oti
Police Public Relations Officer
Lagos State