Ogun Police Command says it would exhume the body of a farmer, Segun Elegbede, who allegedly died in the custody of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Abeokuta, barely after five years, his remains were buried.

Elegbede was said to have been arrested by men of the SARS operatives at his Ajibawo residence in October 2016 in an operation led by one ASP Adeyemi Ganiu.

The police had accused the deceased of being one of those who “attacked the SARS operatives” when they visited Ajibawo to arrest some suspected criminals in possession of firearms.

The wife of the deceased, Fatimo Elegbede, through her counsel, Barr. Femi Aina had written several petitions to the police authority in 2016 and 2017, seeking justice for her husband.

The petitions, it was gathered, prompted the office of the Inspector-General of Police to order the Ogun State command that the family of the deceased be contacted for a post mortem.

However, the police had released the corpse to a nephew of the late farmer one Sunday Elegbede, who was said to have hurriedly buried same without an autopsy.

In her persistence to get justice, the widow, a corn seller, filed a petition before the Ogun judicial panel on police brutality in November 2020, alleging through her counsel, Barr Aina of John & Co (UK) Lawyers, that the “SARS operatives killed my husband and prevented me from getting justice.”

However, the Command in a letter dated March 9, 2021, and addressed to the deceased wife, indicated that the body would be exhumed as part of the investigation process. 

Reacting on Monday, Aina recalled that he had in 2016 warned the police that Segun's body should not be buried without an autopsy, alleging that the officers released the corpse without his knowledge.

The widow had demanded N20million compensation over what she called the “unjust killing” of her husband.