By Emma Okereh
A petitioner, at the ongoing EndSARS panel in Abuja, John Ogbu, is seeking compensation for loss of goods and degrading inhuman treatment meter to him by the then SARS. He equally revealed that Inspector Edwin Kennedy championed the torture he suffered in their hands leading to severe injury on his leg. He also said that Kennedy was also assisted by other officers.
Mr. Ogbu made this revelation before the fact finding panel on human rights violations by defunct SARS during cross examination by counsel to the respondents.
It will be recalled that the petitioner, a second hand dealer in electronics at Gwagwalada, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had previously appeared before the 11 – man panel where he narrated in details how the police tortured him and broke his leg.
The abuse according to the complainant occurred on the 24th,April 2018, at about 3pm.
In his testimony before the panel, Ogbu said, Edwin walked into his shop with a stranger, and that as soon as the stranger pointed at him, Inspector Edwin arrested him and took him to the Gwagwalada police station along with items in his shop where he was tortured.
According to Ogbu, Inspector Edwin, beat him up severely and afterwards took him to the notorious SARS office at Abattoir.
“After severe torture where my arms were twisted to the back and chained to my legs bent from the knees and hung to the ceiling, I discovered I could not walk again” he told the panel.
Ogbu said he was released two weeks later after series of investigation revealed that he was wrongly accused.
Despite being exonerated from the allegations, he was made to bail himself in the sum of N150, 000.
He was later taken to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada for medical examination where an x-ray was carried out and revealed that his right leg was broken.
Ogbu said he had to undergo a corrective surgery at the Allied Hospital in Gwagwalada at the cost of N400, 000.
He added that due to the injury to his right leg he walks with an iron in his leg.
Ogbu is praying the panel to compensate him for the cruel and inhuman degrading treatment he suffered in the hands of the police.
He is equally seeking compensation for the loss of his goods which were carted away by inspector Edwin.
The matter was adjourned to 13th December 2021 for defence.
