SARS sold dead bodies of #EndSARS victims to teaching hospitals: Report

A police service commissioner said the report contained serious allegations and information that would need to be verified.

An NGO, Action Group on Free Civic Space in Nigeria, has alleged that bodies of murdered victims by SARS operatives were sold to University Teaching Hospitals as cadavers for the teaching and practice of medicine in tertiary institutions.

The organisation made the call when it presented its report on alleged police misconduct to the Police Service Commission (PSC).

The notorious police unit, infamous for years of brutality and extra judicial killings was abruptly scrapped following historic #EndSARS protests that shook the country to its foundations last October. Peoples Gazette covered the protests extensively throughout its duration.

The spokesman of the police commission, Ikechukwu Ani, disclosed the group’s call in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

Mr Ani said the group, led by Zikora Ibe, submitted the report titled: “ENDSARS: Police Brutality, Protests and Shrinking Civic Space in Nigeria” to the commission on Monday.

Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, the commissioner representing the Judiciary in PSC, said the report was far reaching, adding that the commission would need to further investigate the allegations contained in it.

Mrs Ogunbiyi, who received the group on behalf of the commission, said the report contained serious allegations and information that would need to be verified.

She commended the group for a job well done, adding that the commission would continue to do its best to improve the workings of the Nigeria police.

The commissioner said the idea was to ensure that the force operated within defined rules and regulations and with respect to democratic tenets.

In her remark, Mrs Ibe said the report was to ensure that erring police officers of the dreaded SARS were held accountable.

She urged the National Human Rights Commission and the Enugu State Judicial Panel of Inquiry to ensure that officers and politicians named and identified by victims in the report were brought to justice.

“We demand that the capacity of oversight by the Complaints Response Unit (CRU), the PSC, Ministry of Police Affairs and the National Human Rights Commission, to enforce discipline in the police be strengthened,” she said.
(NAN)