Police in Ondo State have arrested five of policemen attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for allegedly invading the hostel of students of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) during a night party. The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Femi Joseph, listed those arrested as an inspector and four others. S ome students of the stateowned university had alleged that SARS men invaded their hostel, beat and injured some of them.
The students alleged that the security operatives invaded the hostel about 4a.m. when some of the students were leaving the hostel after a party organised by one of the students.
One of the students, who spoke with journalists, claimed that the policemen brutalised and injured some of the students while some of them were whisked away. The student explained that the policeman invaded the hostel in a commando-like manner on the pretence of searching for some cult members in the hostel. He said: “The incident happened about 4a.m. after the students finished their hostel party. The operatives stormed the hostel as if they were going to war.
They broke the doors, burglaries and ceilings to gain entrance. “The students initially did not open the door for them, thinking the policemen were armed robbers but the policemen started breaking the doors to enter into the rooms of the hostel. “When they entered, they started beating everybody.
Many students were beaten mercilessly, but some students who gave them bribe were released while those who couldn’t bribe were whisked away by the officers.”
However, the PPRO, who confirmed the incident, said the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Gbenga Adeyanju, had ordered for full investigation into the matter. Joseph said five of the policemen, who went to the operations, were being interrogated by the command to know the level of their culpability in the “illegal duty”.
He said: “Three students that were arrested had been released and the commissioner of police has ordered full investigation and after the investigation, if the policemen were found culpable, they would definitely pay for it, we don’t allow indiscipline in this command.
“I also want to use this medium to call on any of the students who were brutalised to come to my office with evidence and I promised we won’t spare any officer found culpable. “We need evidence to prosecute the officers culpable in the offence. Any crime without witness and evidence is dead on arrival.”
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