I can no longer farm since I was shot by police officer, amputated, man tells NHRC SARS panel

A victim of alleged police brutality on Monday told the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) independent investigative panel on violations of human rights by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other police units that he could no longer farm since he was shot and amputated.

The victim, Tairu Garba, stated this when giving evidence in the petition he filed before the panel, marked 2020/IIP-SARS/ABJ/164 and pleaded that the panel should consider his condition and order that he be paid compensation.

Garba had alleged torture, cruel and inhuman treatment against Inspector Atabo Okpanachi of Enjema Police Division in Kogi State, the state Commissioner of Police and the Inspector-General of Police.

Speaking through an interpreter, the petitioner told the panel, “I have a wife and children but I can no longer go to the farm to farm. I also have an aged mother. I want money.”

Narrating what led to the amputation of his left leg, the petitioner informed that on the night of July 7, 2020, they discovered that a young man buried charms at the place they were to hold a community meeting and went to the Enjema police division between 9-10 pm to report the matter.

He informed that the police told them that it was late and that they should come back the following day for them (police) to take necessary action.

Garba said on the following day, while they were gathered at the place the charm was buried, Inspector Okpanachi arrived at the scene in company with some vigilantes and ordered everyone to kneel down.

He informed that he challenged the police officer on why he asked them to kneel down, adding that, “I told him the matter is before the police and why did he ask us to kneel down.”

Okpanachi, according to him, took a whip and started flogging everyone after which he took his gun and shot him (Garba) in the left leg, which was later amputated.

When cross-examined by police counsel, Taiwo Malik, the petitioner told the panel that he did not have any issue with Okpanachi, though he did with the young man who buried the charm.

He said having reported the matter to the police the previous night, the inspector did not suppose to beat anyone of them.

Asked why it was only him that was shot, Garba said, “he shot at me because I was the one who spoke to him that what he was doing was not right.”

While testifying in favour of Garba, Prince Gabriel Momoh, informed that there was a chieftaincy tussle in Afogamka, for which they got a favourable court judgment.

He informed that he and others went to Enjema police station to report the burying of charm by one Hudu Musa on July 7, 2020, before Okpanachi stormed the community on July 8, 2020, and shot his nephew, Garba.

While saying that the then Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Kogi State Governor on Security, Ibrahim Abagwu, now the chairman of Ankpa Local Government of the state, told them that he was the one who sent Okpanachi and the vigilante to the community, Momoh described the police inspector as a notorious officer being used by politicians.

He informed that Abagwu gave them N50,000 to treat his nephew, adding that the SARS commander also gave them N10,000.

Momoh informed that as part of efforts to suppress the matter, the SARS wrote a letter to him and others from the community inviting them, adding that they did not attend the meeting based on information they heard that it was a ploy to arrest them.

He added that “if not for this panel, nobody will hear about the case of my nephew.”

In his defence, Okpanachi vehemently denied shooting the petitioner, saying, however, that it was one Inspector Ali Abubakar, who shot Garba.

He narrated that based on a distress call from the local government chairman that there was a communal crisis at Afogamka, the then SARS commander, ASP Lawrence Ekpo, directed that the SARS team should move to the community.

The inspector told the panel that there was another call directing that the team should rescue one Hudu Musa whose life some people were after and had escaped from the village.

According to him, Musa was rescued from a bush and taken in the police vehicle to the village, where they wanted to know what was happening, adding that people forcefully removed Musa from the vehicle and injured him on the head.

“We refused to allow them to take him away and returned him to the vehicle. As we were about to move, they came and dragged our driver down. Inspector Ali Abubakar sitting behind the driver came down and shot at one of them.

“It was Ali Abubakar who shot him (petitioner), not me. That was how the driver was rescued and driven away from the scene. It was in the process of shooting this man that we were able to escape,” Okpanachi told the panel.

Meanwhile, a member of the panel, Dr Garba Tetengi SAN, who stood in for its chairman, Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd), while adjourning the matter to November 25, 2021, ordered that Inspector Ali Abubakar must appear before the panel on the next adjourned date.

 

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