SARS: Police Reacts To Alleged Killing Of A Man In Ughelli Community

The Delta State Command of the Nigeria Police Force has described as false the report that its officers shot to death a young man and went away his Lexus Jeep in Ughelli community of the state.

Naija News had reported that the operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS has been accused of killing a man around Wetland Hotel, Ughelli in Delta State.

The report alleged that the SARS officers shot the young man on Saturday, October 3 and left the scene.

However, the state Police Command has reacted to the allegation as revealed in a video which went viral on social platforms and media houses, describing it as false.

According to the force command in a statement signed and made available to newsmen by its Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, the policemen involved are not SARS operatives as stated in some quarters.

The Police statement reads; “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 handiwork of criminally minded people who do not see anything good in the police but want Delta State to be in turmoil.”

The Police recalls that “on the 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 a high speed in a suspicious manner.”

“It could be recalled that it is under a similar circumstance that some kidnappers recently kidnapped a woman who was with her two (2) children in her car in the same Ughelli, and 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 violent confrontation with the mob.

“However, other police patrol teams were promptly mobilized to the scene but were informed that the victim has 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 police noted.

On his part, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP Hafiz Mohammed Inuwa, urged the general public to shun the viral video, describing it as fake and malicious publication, adding that they have no connection with the incident in Ughelli.

Meanwhile, one Pastor Kayode Ogunleye have been killed by unknown gunmen in a forest on the Aramoko-Ijero-Ekiti highway in Ekiti State.