Alabina Romeo, an 89-year-old firewood seller and indigene of Abonnema in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, has urged the Rivers State Judicial Commission of Inquiry into police brutality to prevail on the Nigeria Police Force to release his son, Silas Remeo, dead or alive.
Romeo told the commission on Tuesday that his 47-year-old son was arrested on September 16, 2016, by SARS operatives along Aggrey Road in Port Harcourt and taken to the SARS office in Borikiri, Port Harcourt.
According to him: “My son was arrested on September 16, 2016 by SARS officers at about 10:00pm when he returned from work along Aggrey Road, and was taken to SARS office in Borikiri.
“They called me on phone that I should come and see my son. I travelled from Abonnema where I sell firewood to Port Harcourt. When I got there, they said I should bring N50,000 for my son’s bail.
“I went back to Abonnema, ran round and was able to raise N20,000. I got there and they rejected the money, insisting that it must be N50,000. I told them that that was all I was able to raise as a firewood seller.
“It was then they told me that my son was not with them. I have not seen him since then and I want the panel to help me tell Nigeria Police to release my son alive or his corpse so that I can bury him well. I believe wherever he is now, his soul is not at rest.”
Also, a retired civil servant, Ipalibo Manuel, told the panel that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) killed his nephew, Godstine Adokiye, following his failure to raise N100,000 for his bail.
He said his nephew paid the ultimate price for his love for football, saying that his offence was going to play football adding that he was arrested on his way back from Borokiri Sand Field on that day.
Manuel said: “My nephew went to play ball at Borokiri Sand Field. On his way back with friends, he was arrested and taken to SARS office in 2016. When I got there with the N30,000 I managed to raise, they threatened me and told me my nephew wasn’t there.
“I told them I am retired that I have N30,000, and not N100,000 as they required. They refused and I had to go back to Abonnema. I was threatened not to come back again, I left.”
He said that that was the last he saw his nephew alive and appealed to the panel to help him secure his nephew’s corpse so he can give him a proper burial.
