Seun Ayoade, 37, was tortured to death by an officer the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Ondo State Police Command, SaharaReporters has learned.
Mr. Ayoade was arrested after SARS officers raided his home in Akure on October 12, 2017, following unfounded reports that he was a member of a robbery gang.
Ojelabi Oladele, a police inspector with the SARS office in Akure, was said to have led the arrest of Mr. Ayoade before placing him in detention and torturing him to death.
Mr. Oladele then dumped Mr. Ayoade’s corpse at the morgue of the Ondo State Specialist Hospital in Akure and lied to attendants that the deceased died as a result of gunshot wound he sustained during a duel with the police.
The deceased, who worked as a trader in his community, had allegedly been friends with Mr. Oladele. The two reportedly had a long-running argument over Gbemisola Okoro, the estranged wife of Mr. Ayoade and a police officer.
On Monday, SaharaReporters contacted Mrs. Okoro, and she confirmed that her estranged husband was tortured and killed by Mr. Oladele at the SARS facility in Akure.
She revealed how the disgruntled officer had been asking her for sex for many years but she rebuked him, which angered Mr. Oladele.
“I can’t just imagine how a friend to my man [Mr. Ayoade] will be asking me for sex. It is very disgusting. Many times he [Mr. Oladele] asked me to go out with him, but I always tell him ‘no’ and that I can’t do it.
“Because I turned down his offer, he then decided to punish Mr Ayoade by calling him a criminal, hence his arrest and detention at the SARS office. And despite all this, Inspector Oladele is still threatening to deal me just because I refused to allow him to sleep with me.
“They have now killed my husband in their detention center with cooked-up lies that he was an armed robber who died during a gun duel with some police officers,” Mrs. Okoro revealed.
The policewoman further explained how she had been transferred from the Fanibi Police Station in Akure to another police station in Osogbo, Osun State.
Femi Joseph, spokesperson of the Ondo State Police Command, also confirmed the allegation to SaharaReporters on the phone on Monday evening.
Mr. Joseph explained that the case was already being investigated and assured that the officer would face the law if he is found culpable of the allegation.
“The Police Commissioner has ordered full-scale investigations into the ongoing case. Although it is an allegation, a panel has been set up, and investigations have begun to unravel the truth of the matter.
“And if the culprit [officer] is found guilty then he is going to face the prosecution and full wrath of the law,” he said.
A human rights activist in the state, Adewumi Owolabi, had already taken up the case and petitioned the police intending to investigate his officers properly.
