How SARS Officials Killed My 3-Day-Old Baby – Man Laments

A 50-year old man, Norde Sylvester, has yesterday recounted how a bullet from the gun of personnel of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad killed his three-day-old daughter in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Sylvester, who Is a civil servant, working with the Universal Basic Education, made this known while speaking at the hearing of the Rivers State Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Police Brutality in Port Harcourt.

According to him, the sad event occured on October 15, 2015, at his residence in Rumuohalu, near Port Harcourt.

“On that day, I was with my family in our house at no. 9 Hon Close, off Omodudoro, few metres away from the SARS office on Nelson Mandela Road.

“There had been shootings by SARS men which continued till we went in to sleep. We woke up in the morning to discover that one of their bullets penetrated the roof and killed my only daughter, a three-day-old baby.

“I picked up the bullet and went to the SARS office. When I got there, I told them that they have killed my daughter.

“Two of the SARS men ordered me to go back, threatening that if I did not leave, I would join my daughter,” he said.

Reacting however, the counsel for the Commissioner of Police, Mrs Mercy Nweke, during cross-examination, said the the petitioners claim was hard to believe, as a bullet was not enough evidence that it came from SARS men.

She also wondered why he did not report the matter at the police station at the time.

Nweke said, “This is ammunition (referring to the bullet). It has not been used. Something that has not been used cannot kill anybody.”

However, her claim was countered by the counsel for the commission, S. O. Inko-Tariah, who argued that Nweke was not an expert and could not determine if the bullet was used or not.

The commission’s chairman, Justice Chukwunenye Uriri (retd.) said the evidence provided by the petitioner was of public interest and admitted it as an exhibit, asking Sylvester what he wanted.

“All I need is justice for my baby that they killed and also my house that was damaged,” Sylvester replied.