Some officials of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit in Nigerian Police Force, are allegedly hunting for an Uber driver, identified as Nicholas Okpere for video recording them during one of their alleged illegal operation in Port Harcourt where one man, identified as Samson John was shot dead.
According to a source who is close to the Uber driver’s, problems started for the family of Mr and Mrs Nicholas Okpere in Port Harcourt on October 2, 2020 when a customer called him with an unknown number for a next day trip. The Uber driver was said to have picked the customers up on October 3, by 6pm, at Rumuokoro, unknown to him that they were SARS officials who didn’t want to use their official car for the mission.
The source narrated that when the customers alighted at their destination, they went straight to a bar, while the driver was still in the same spot where he dropped them, expecting to get another order and also still confirming payment but suddenly began to hear gunshots in the same direction the men went.
According to the source, when the driver looked in the direction and discovered that it was the same people that alighted from his vehicle were shooting at the bar, he used his phone to record the incident. Meanwhile, when the men discovered that the same driver was recording them, they chased him but he was able to escape from the scene.
It was gathered that the SARS officials have been trailing and threatening Okpere and his family since that time because they have his number.
Meanwhile, a few days later, specifically on 8 October 2020, a protest against police brutality and many extrajudicial killings otherwise known as “End SARS protest” started in Lagos. The protesters are calling for the disbanding of the Special Anti-robbery squad SARS.
During the protest, when everyone that has evidences of the menace caused by police and SARS were bringing out what they, the Uber driver, Mr Nicholas Okpere was said to have also posted the video he recorded on October 3; a development that has since compounded his ordeal, as he has since been receiving calls from unknown numbers from unidentified members of the SARS officials, threatening to come after him and his family, which made him to relocate to his family house in Edo.
Even while at Edo state, it was gathered that some SARS officials attacked his family house, a development that led to the death of some members of his family.
It was gathered that the Uber driver reported the matter to relevant authorities but nobody could help him because the numbers that were calling him were unknown numbers and difficult to track.
Nicholas Okpere and his family members, according to sources, have been running for their lives since October 3 till date.
