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SARS Arrests Regina’s Son Demands N500,000

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A woman in Lagos State has alleged that Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS arrested her son and illegally detained him about five months now.

The woman who gave her name as Regina Stanley in a suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos alleged that the security agency has kept her only son in custody for five months now just because she could not afford to pay N500,000 for his bail as requested by the SARS.

According to her, Sunday Stanley, her child with her late husband was running an errand for her on the early hour of March 28, 2020, before the SARS officers raided the Morogbo area of the state and swindled him away alongside others.

The petty trader explained that she personally send the boy on an errand after arriving at her shop on that faithful morning.

She said, “At about 11.30am, I sent my son on an errand only to be informed by my fellow traders that my son had been arrested and locked up inside the Black Maria by armed agents of the 3rd respondent.

“I hurriedly closed my trade and went to the place where my son and other persons had been arrested and locked up. Every effort made by me to secure the release of my son proved abortive.”

Regina’s statement reads further, “My son, together with other persons, was driven to SARS office at Ikeja police command. Agents of the respondents levied all sorts of trumped-up allegations against my son and told me to bring N500,000 to secure his release.”

“Because of my inability to get the money my son has been detained since the 28th of March, 2020 till date. He is my only child and my husband has passed away since 2019,” said Stanley’s mother in an affidavit attached to a fundamental rights suit, seeking an order for the release of her son.

Olukoya Ogungbeje, a Lagos-based-lawyer standing in for Stanley, requested Federal High Court to declare that “the boy’s arrest was unlawful, oppressive and violated his fundamental right to personal liberty and fair hearing provided for under sections 33, 35, 36 and 41 of the 1999 Constitution.”

Ogungbeje in the suit prayed the court to issue an order for the immediate release of the young man and as well for the police to tender a public apology to him in a national daily newspaper while he should be paid N50m as general and exemplary damages for his unlawful arrest, detention and humiliation by SARS.

In another news, Bello Shagari, a grandson of a former Nigerian President, Shehu Shagari, has warned Christian believers to be careful in meddling with matters that concerned Muslims, Naija News reports.