Alleged SARS Shooting: Nobody Was Shot, One Suspect Jumped Out Of Moving Vehicle – Police

The Delta state Police Command has refuted claims that operatives of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) shot a young man dead in Ughelli, Delta state.

The police command cleared the air in a statement on Monday morning by its imagemaker, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, following trending online videos and posts alleging SARS Operatives shot a young man to death and made away with his Lexus Jeep.

BIGPEN recalls that reports over the weekend say SARS operatives killed a young man in Ughelli, Delta state. A video that has gone viral showed there was confusion in front of Wetland Hotel in the Ughelli.

According to the report, the officers fled the scene after the shooting with the vitim’s vehicle – a white Lexus Sport Utility Vehicle. This development was said to have sparked outrage on social media as many Nigerians renewed their calls for the federal government to scrap SARS.

But the state police command, in its reactions said; “The allegations and the said online videos about SARS operatives killing a young man in Ughelli is not only false, malicious and erroneous but also misleading.

“The victim was NEITHER SHOT NOR KILLED by the policemen. The policemen involved are NOT SARS operatives as earlier reported. The allegation is the handy work of criminally minded people who does not see anything good in the police but want Delta State to be in turmoil.

“The Command therefore deemed it necessary to put the record straight and state the facts of the matter as it happened;

“That on 3rd of October, 2020 at about 1600hrs, Operatives of Safe Delta Squad in Ughelli, while on patrol along Warri/Ughelli by Wetland Hotel Ughelli, observed a white coloured Lexus Jeep without registration number that suddenly parked by the roadside which on sighting police patrol team, the driver immediately zoomed off at high speed in a suspicious manner.

“It could be recalled that it is under a similar circumstances that some kidnappers recently kidnapped a woman who was with her two (2) children in her car in same Ughelli, escaped from the police patrol team along Ughelli/Patani expressway in their operational Mercedes Benz Car before they were later arrested in Patani. Consequently, the team gave them a hot chase and they successfully intercepted the vehicle and arrested the two (2) occupants.

“On their way to the station with the arrested suspects inside the police patrol vehicle, one of the suspects JUMPED OUT of the moving vehicle and sustained body and head injuries. While trying to rescue him, angry mob came out to attack the policemen which made the team to leave the scene with the other suspect in their patrol vehicle to their office to avoid a violent confrontation with the mob.

“However, other police patrol teams were promptly mobilized to the scene but were informed that the victim had been rushed to a private hospital in Ughelli by passers-by. The patrol team immediately visited the victim in the Hospital where he is being treated and saw him alive and recuperating.

The statement, however, said that the state’s Commissioner of Police, CP Hafiz Mohammed Inuwa, mni, has urged members of the public to discountenance and ignore the said online fake video and malicious publication as they have no connection with the incident in Ughelli.