After a long time pursuing justice for an innocent life that was snuffed out, a SARS officer is finally set to pay the supreme price for his crimes.
A Criminal High Court of Justice in Edo State has sentenced a dismissed police constable, Joseph Omotosho, to death by hanging. He was attached to the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, of the Lagos State Police Command.
Alongside the SARS officer Joseph Omotosho, others were found guilty. They are Corporals Adeleke Adedeji, Abena John, Henry Shobowale and Oniyo Musa. These men escaped during the Benin jailbreaks that happened just about the time of the #EndSARS protests.
A certain 26-year-old Benson Obodeh was arrested at his home on May 21, 2015, and was reported dead the same day. He was suspected of having been a victim of torture that led to his death.
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Further investigation revealed that the police had taken Obodeh’s ATM card, forced him to divulge his pin and then withdrew the sum of N330,000 within the space of four days, leaving a little over N1,000 in the account.
The Police Public Relations Officer Lagos Command at the time, Kenneth Nwosu, had lied that Benson was killed by a mob when neighbours arrested him in Benin.
But later on, his family managed to trace his corpse to the Specialist Hospital in Benin, where they discovered that a certain Corporal Oniya Musa deposited his body with a completely different name.
An autopsy showed that underwent torture and eventually died from his injuries which led to heart and kidney failure.
The Edo State government has launched a searchrr for the other policemen who are on the run.