Juliana Francis
The Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), a human rights organisation, has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Dr Kayode Egbetokun, the Chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC), Chief Solomon Arase and top police units in Osun State, to look into the involvement of a woman police, identified as Funmi, otherwise known as Iya SARS.
The group also petitioned the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission(NHRC), Human Rights Watch(HRW), Transparency International(TI) and international communities, explaining that the said woman works in the area command’s office in Osogbon.
The petition signed by the Executive Chairman, CHRSJ, Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman, stated that a complainant who had left the shore of the country for foreign land reported a debt matter to the Command which was not part of police statutory duties as highlighted in the Police Act.
But Iya SARS and her cohorts officers came to the residential house of one Mr Adekunle Omotunde in the early hours of Tuesday, May 21st, 2024, at the precise time of 5:16 am, to arrest him for owing his friend who has travelled abroad, adding that until the intervention of Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman.
Sulaiman wondered an invitation was not sent to Omotunde, before swooping on him at such an ungodly hour. The activist also urged the arresting police team to follow due process of inviting the Nigerian citizen by birth as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
Sulaiman said: “After which they returned to their Area Command office but to the human rights body’s dismay, they brought the invitation to the resident of Adekunle Omotunde in the afternoon of the same day of Tuesday, May 21st, 2024, over alleged debt owing his abroad friend.”
The Petition was dated Tuesday 21st day of May 2024. The rights group alleged that police personnel in the Area Command, Osogbo, have become tools in the hands of the complainant.
Sulaiman said: “Iya SARS and her team have turned the Policing the country to “Jeun Jeun” means “eat and let me eat”, so the investigation was not going in the Osogbo Area Command Office again, which is an affront to the Policing agenda of the current IGP, Dr. Kayode Egbetokun, a finest and we’ll trained Police boss.”
The activist further alleged that the same Iya SARS and her co-travellers in the Area Command had earlier illegally arrested one Adekunle Ibrahim Ajibade on Friday 3rd day of May 2024 over the same matter, adding that the same Police officers illegally extorted the sum of N30,000 from his father who served as his surety, Mr Olanrewaju Ajibade by calling the bribe money, “Bail Fund”.
