Dismissed SARS officer sentenced to death over extra-judicial killing
The police constable and member of the defunct SARS, is said to have conspired with other constables, who are now at large, to kill a suspected criminal in 2015. 2 min read
A State High Court in Benin City, Edo Sate, on Friday, sentenced a police constable, Joseph Omotosho, to death for conspiring with four other constables, said to be at large, to kill a car dealer in 2015.
The slain car dealer, Benson Obodeh, was suspected by the police to belong to a criminal gang.
Mr Omotosho, who was dismissed from the Nigerian police after the incident, served with the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit that was notorious for its brutality and other forms of human rights abuses.
Dismissed police officer to die by hanging for extra-judicial killing
February 14, 2021
A Criminal High Court of Justice sitting in Benin City, has sentenced to death by hanging, a dismissed Police Constable, Joseph Omotosho, attached to the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Edo State Police command.
This sentence is coming after five and a half years of waiting for justice by the family of Benson Obodeh, a car dealer, who was arrested by men of SARS for undisclosed reasons and later died in unclear circumstances.
The dismissed Constable, Joseph Omotosho, alongside, Corporals, Adeleke Adedeji, Abena John, Oniyo Musa, Henry Shobowole, were found guilty after undergoing a court trial on eight-count charge bordering on Conspiracy to Steal and murder over alleged car theft incident that happened in 2015.
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On Friday, a dismissed police constable, Joseph Omotosho, was sentenced to death by hanging by a Benin Criminal High Court for his complicity in a case of extra-judicial killing preferred against him and four others at large.
Omotosho, an operative of the defunct Lagos State Police Command Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, was accused of conspiring in the extra-judicial killings of a Benin-based car dealer, Benson Obodeh, alongside four other Prisoners Awaiting Trial, PAT, who escaped during the November 19 jailbreaks in Benin City when hoodlums who hijacked the EndSARS protest broke into the two correctional facilities in the Edo State capital.