The Nigerian Twittersphere was on Saturday awash with calls for scrapping of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) after its operatives allegedly killed a man in Delta state.

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Video clips had surfaced on Twitter wherein a witness claimed the young man, who was commuting around Ugheli town in the south-southern state, was gunned down while they fled with his vehicle.

In one of the videos, pedestrians could be seen chasing the operatives involved while private cars closely tailed both the vehicle of the policemen and that of the deceased said to have been taken by them.

“A young man was shot dead today in broad daylight by SARS officers at Ughelli, Delta state. After killing him, they stole his car  (Lexus Jeep) and left his body on the roadside,” the witness said.

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“SARS officers are now rogue criminals in uniform #EndSARS. Its time the youths declared war.”

In another video, residents rushed to the scene of the incident to assist the victim, who is seen bleeding and showing no sign of life as men in the background continued saying “he’s dead”.

‘SARS demanded N1m, threatened to shoot’ — Lagos deliveryman recounts ordeal

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In yet another video, involving an incident that was said to have recently played out in Lagos, a young man is seen being shoved into a vehicle by men without uniforms as he screams for help.

A Twitter user, who claimed to be the alleged victim, said the incident occurred while he was en route to the Yaba area of the commercial city on September 25 and it also involved SARS officials.

“On 25th September 2020, my friend and I were on our way to Yaba, to pick up some items which we had to deliver when our Uber got stopped by men without uniforms who claimed to be SARS officer. I refused to open the doors because they had no ID,” he narrated.

“My friend who accompanied me was asleep so I turned around to wake him up when I noticed the @Boltapp_ng driver unlocked the doors and they forced their way in. One sat in front while the other at the back sit with us. They asked for our phones which we gave them.

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“After checking our phones and finding nothing, they told my friend to get down from the car and get into their bus. He complied. Then he looked to me and asked me to do the same, I refused, to ask what I had done. I further asked for his ID card to be sure he is an officer and not.

“The video above. In the car, they started to threaten me, telling me how they would lock me up, chain me and no one would do anything about it. My bolt driver didn’t mention one word throughout all this. We drove to some bridge where they put me in handcuffs.

“They told me that if I tried to call out for help again, they’ll shoot me and throw my body down and no one would find me. These guys are real demons. I got into their bus then they said they are taking me to SFU division Ikoyi. That’s their station, after driving around.

“After driving for about 30 minutes to one hour they asked us (me and my guy) to pay them 1 million and I asked why? Are they no longer taking us to the station to let us know our crime? The one who sat in front who seems to be their boss got angry at my statement which led to

“Seeing that we weren’t about to give them that money, they ended up bringing it down to 100k. They drove us to Zenith Bank along Osolo Way, opposite SOS Home, where they made my guy get down from the bus to withdraw the money from the ATM.

“After they got the money, they let us go. I still don’t know my crime. I called the bolt driver to return the things I left in his car but I found he had blocked my number. I contacted Bolt and they said there’s nothing they can do as their drivers are independent contractors.”

A Lagos-based lady had previously recounted how she was “kidnapped” by armed SARS officials for an undisclosed offense.



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