Part 1 -In the early hours of Nov 27 2012, Lucky John, husband to a certain Folake, father of four children, left his home. His mission was to go about his regular job as a commercial bus driver plying the Igando/Mile 2 route in Lagos to make a living. He never returned. #EndSARS

The next day, his worried wife, accompanied by his mother commenced a search for him. After looking in all the likely places, including hospitals and mortuaries, without results, they reported the case to the Igando Police station.

On 29 Dec. an anonymous call to Folake said that Lucky was being held by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a division of the @PoliceNG. When relatives went to SARS, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) in charge of the case confirmed that Lucky was in their custody.

According to the IPO, Lucky was arrested because his number was found as one of the contacts in the phone of an alleged armed robber. The officer told Folake, Lucky’s wife, to bring N200, 000 to facilitate a bail for him.

After one month of going back and forth, it was discovered that SARS officials had killed Lucky. According to reports, he was accused of armed robbery, paraded in front of journalists and thereafter, killed. A police source confirmed that Lucky was killed extra-judicially.

However, the police spokesperson Ngozi Braide insisted that Lucky was arrested for armed robbery but got shot dead when a gun battled ensued between the police and an armed robbery group when Lucky took the police to the latter’s hideout.

As at the time of the investigation on the story Folake, Lucky’s wife of 16 years had been ejected by their landlord and become homeless with her four children. Life had become more difficult.

The story I just shared is an excerpt from Juliana Francis Ebere’s ( @julianafrancis) work - ‘Extrajudicial killings: story of SARS and robbery suspects’, published February 24th, March 3rd, and March 10th, 2014 by The New Telegraph.

It won the overall prize for investigative reporting in that year.
It is one of horror, anguish and gross human right abuse by the Nigerian Police Forces’ Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Citing examples from Lagos, to Port Harcourt, to Anambra States,

Juliana recounted the ordeal of real people – Chigozie Ezike, Lucky John, Taiwo Egbayeyomi, Michael Akor, Michael Igwe, Ernest Ezeanochie, Chika Ibeku, and Nnamdi Chuks, all killed by officers of SARS without the benefit of the due process of law.

Her story, like many others, highlights the heart-wrenching tale of recurring harassment, intimidation and sometimes, murder of Nigerians, mostly young persons, by those entrusted under the Law to protect them.

It also corroborates many other independent reports including that of Amnesty International detailing the abuse of access to the instrument of force by those constitutionally empowered to use it for the benefit of the people.

Presently on social media, using the hashtags – #EndSARS , #EndSARSBrutality and #ReformSARS, Nigerians are sharing stories of how they have been impacted negatively by those charged with the responsibility of protecting them.

Sad tales of how people have lost sons, fathers, mothers, friends, livelihoods and more to the ineptitude that has now come to define our existence, this time, brutality of state anointed men in uniform, are trending.

On our part at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, we have recorded at least one winning story on the case about every year of our twelve years of promoting the culture of investigative reporting in Nigeria. https://bit.ly/2IDRwhY 

At the maiden edition of the @WSoyinkaCentre award in 2005, Bayoor Ewuoso’s picture titled, ‘Nigerian Police Brutality’ and Akintunde Ilesanmi’s ‘Shot at sight’, won the first and second places respectively, in the photojournalism category. Both reporters were of @independentng

The second edition of the award programme also witnessed Idowu Ogunleye and Akin Farinto from The News/PM News, winning prizes on the subject of police brutality. Akin Farinto’s work ‘Police brutality: police beat man to coma over N20’, was runner-up

while Idowu Ogunleye’s ‘Sosoliso air crash: police tear gas, batter protesting women’ won the photo category. In 2008, Solomon Adebayo of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigerian (FRCN), won the Broadcast (Radio) category with his entry,

‘Abuja Environmental Protect Board AEPB/Hawkers’, a commentary on extra-judicial abduction, detention, extortion and torture as tools of oppression used by state security agents against the populace.

In the same year, Ademola Akinlabi of Tell Magazine was announced winner of the photo category for his entry, ‘Minimum force’. The photo entry shows a man who has just been beaten to a pulp by policemen for driving ‘against the convoy of state government officials’.

Remember the case of Boyo Awosika, a young man who was shot at while driving by the men of the Nigerian Police on his way home at night around the Lekki/Ajah axis of Lagos in 2009? Deji Badmus ( @dejibadmus) then of Channels Television @channelstv

won the Broadcast (TV) category of the award with the story ‘Extra-judicial killing: Death of Bayo Awosika.’ Olatunji Obasa, a photo reporter with News Magazine in 2010 emerged the First Runner-up with his piece, (Police) man’s inhumanity against man, published on June 21, 2010.

The story captured a worrying image of the emotional, psychological, and physical oppression of citizens by men of the @PoliceNG.

By 2012, Olatunji Obasa’s career pursuit had moved him to @MobilePunch where he continued is documentation of police brutality and won the award with a story simply tagged ‘Police Brutality’.

I @D_Encourager, made this statement titled ‘The need to reform security institutions’ on 9 December 2017 during the public presentation of Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting of the @WSoyinkaCentre (Find Part 2)