Gist Coven

An auto parts dealer in the Owode Onirin area of Lagos State, Lukman Ogundele, has died in the custody of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Lagos State Police Command. Although the police formation had been reportedly evasive on the whereabouts of the father of two children, a police charge sheet sighted by PUNCH marked his name ‘late’. It was learnt that Lukman and his friend, Saheed Abayomi, had been arrested by SARS operatives for facilitating the sale of a stolen Toyota Camry. It was gathered that the police apprehended Lukman in the midnight of December 29, 2017 and took him into custody in Ikeja, where he was detained alongside Abayomi and two others. Abayomi and Lukman’s families reportedly searched for them at police stations across the state, until on December 31 when Abayomi’s mother traced him to the SARS office. It was gathered that Lukman’s wife, Wunmi Ogundele, and relatives consequently visited SARS office on several occasions, but were not allowed to see him....

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The Nigerian Police Force has reacted to calls by Nigerians for the scrapping of its Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS. There is ongoing social media campaign calling on police to scrap its SARS unit. But the police said contrary to claims of wrongdoings against SARS by some “criminals”, the anti-robbery unit had done a lot in sanitising the country. The police said those carrying out the campaign in the social media were armed robbers. It also asked well meaning Nigerians to disregard what it described as so-called special media campaign against SARS. Speaking with Vanguard, Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, a Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP, vowed that the criminals won’t have their way. He said, “Anybody calling for scrapping of SARS is an armed robber, let him come forward so that we can investigate him. ”Any complaints they give against any police personnel, everybody knows that we don’t hide it. “We have a Public Complaints Bureau which handles ...