Lagos State Judicial Panel on restitution for victims of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) related abuses and other matters yesterday, Tuesday, March 16, 2021, resumed sitting for the week by taking on 10 petitions brought before it and has summoned three management staff of Techno oil.
Those summoned are the Group Managing Director, Nkechi Obi, Anthony Onyeama and Godfrey Okigbo.
The Chairman of the panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi approved a subpoena summoning the three based on the request of a petitioner, Prince Ayeni Adebayo who testified before the panel today.
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The Petitioner, a stock investor, had told the panel that he was unlawfully arrested and detained by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) from July 17 to Aug 10, 2015, without bail concerning a trumped-up allegation of using a fraudulent cheque to lift 4 tankers of Automotive Gas oil (AGO) from the Kirikiri Depot of Techno oil.
He said the allegations were made by the three management staff of Techno oil to the police.
The petitioner asked the panel to summon all three to testify so that he can clear his name, and seek compensation from the police for his alleged unlawful arrest and detention.
In other petition of the day, Tella Adesanya vs the Nigeria Police Force, the panel after the adoption of written address by both parties reserved the ruling to a date to be communicated to both parties in due course.
In another petition involving Mr. Oliver Chukwuemeka vs Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), the panel adjourned the hearing to April 20, 2021, to allow the panel to determine that the petitioner has no subsisting court case with regards to the petition
In the 5th petitions of the day, the matters were adjourned to dates in April 2021, for hearing save for the case of Mr. Lucky Igbinova, Elvis Irenuma and Effiong Elems Edu vs FSARS.
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The 3 petitioners are ex-staff of late Chief Alfred Rewane who was assassinated in his Ikeja GRA residence during the tenure of late military dictator General Sani Abacha and were detained for 16 years in which they were brutalized and tortured by SARS operative of which 5 of their colleagues are no more as a result of the tortured received from SARS.
The petitioner counsel stated that the petitioners were 8 in number when they were taken into custody to explain what they knew about the assassination of the late Itshekiri Chief.
However, the police counsel objected to the jurisdiction of the panel hearing the petition solely against the Nigerian police because, in his words, the murder of late Chief Alfred Rewane was a national issue that involved the DMI, DSS and Nigeria Police Force.
The panel adjourned the case to April 20, 2021, to rule on the issue of jurisdiction raised by the respondent.
