Police detain SARS operatives over ‘extortion’

A team of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives alleged to have illegally arrested, tortured a young man Emmanuel Adegbite and extorted his mother of N434,000 has been detained, the police have said

Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone Two command Lawal Shehu confirmed the arrest to our Correspondent on telephone Thursday evening.

The policemen attached to SARS Ladegboye in Ikorodu allegedly stormed Royal Crown Hotel in Asolo on March 5 and unlawfully whisked people away.

It was gathered that Adegbite, who was playing snooker at the time of the illegal raid, was among those arrested and taken to SARS base at Ijede.

They allegedly tortured their victims for several hours at gunpoint and only stopped when Adegbite’s mother transferred N434,000 into an account provided by the officers.

The woman, it was alleged, also paid the operatives another N30,000 so they could release her son to her alive bringing to total N464,000 the money given the operatives.

It was gathered that the woman made the transfer from her Access Bank to a Pagatech account number

3756479401.

This information which was shared on a group chat, attracted condemnation with participants demanding the culprits be arrested and the money refunded to the woman.

Confriming the arrest of the team, AIG Shehu said the allegation was being investigated and parties had been invited to the zonal headquarters in Onikan today (Friday).

He said: “Like you said it is an allegation. But we have already detained members of the team involved. The policemen whose picture was published is in custody now. Investigation in ongoing. I am awaiting the parties to come tomorrow (Friday). We will get to the root of the matter.