A student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Oluwaseyi Akinade, aged 23, yesterday committed suicide due to alleged arrest and torture by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and loss of 20,000 US dollars to Forex Trading owing to his arrest by the operatives. He was discovered dead yesterday morning after drinking poison.
A report by The Guardian reads: “In his suicide note seen by our reporter, Oluwaseyi narrated that his experience at the police cell on February 2, this year, which made him miss a presentation at school, left his life in shambles and hurting himself proved to be the only option left to him.”
According to him, he had been having series of nightmare since his arrest by the SARS officials. He said the scenario had been haunting him for months and had given him nightmares as in his dream, the police would appear to him and whisked him away just as it happened months ago. “I wake up with chest pain.”
He said: “I was in my hostel working on my post data slides because I had to present the next day, when all of a sudden these SARS official entered my room. It was around 10:00p.m. at night and I still had my generator on. Maybe that was why they came to my room first, they just collected my laptop and phones. My friends were also in my room, we were all told to dress up and come outside, one of my friend was given a dirty slap for practically not dressing up fast enough “what did we do?” I kept asking. They didn’t say anything and they threatened to waste me if I don’t stop asking silly questions.
“We were handcuffed like armed robbers, all 17 of us, we were squeezed into small cars like goats to the slaughter, and from camp Abeokuta we were taken down to Ibara police station. Immediately, we got there, I decided to plead with who was in charge that I had a presentation in school the next day, that they should please let me go early because at that time it was 12noon but he said I will have to pay 200,000!
“I told him to go through my phone that I am not a fraudster, and that I am a forex trader. He went through my phone and my friend’s phone there was nothing implicating there, except for the bank alerts and those money were not even mine, I told him they were investor’s money.
“Meanwhile, I had opened a trade on my trading platform before they came to arrest us, I also pleaded with them to give me access to my phone so I can close the trade. Maybe they thought I wanted to call someone so, they slapped me for requesting for my phone, the trade kept running till the next day.
“I slept in the cell that night for doing nothing, the police slapped and beat us, prisoners also dealth with us when we entered the cell. I cried till the next morning not because I was slept in the cell for doing nothing but because I was on a losing trade with thousands of dollars online and I was going to miss my project presentation, which cannot be repeated.
“I was paraded like a thief in the morning and they were asking us what we did, with tears in my eyes I said “nothing” they still slapped me and told me to admit I’m a fraudster.
“Without having anything incriminating on my phone! That day I lost almost 20,000 dollars to trading and I missed my presentation in school. They still wanted to collect bail after beating and harassing us for nothing. Since then I’ve been in massive debt, I couldn’t complete my education.
“And my life has been in shambles, I have receipts for everything I said on here incase anyone thinks I’m lying. Suicide has been the only thought on my mind everyday. So incase I hurt myself and anyone is curious as to why I did it. This is my story.”
Oluwaseyi’s brother, Toye insisted that his brother committed suicide out of depression due to the way SARS officials treated him. “My younger brother died earlier this morning and I can’t help beating myself up for missing the clues he left as to what he was going through. My theory is that he committed suicide out of depression based on the way SARS officials treated him. It’s definitely a crime to be Nigerian. Nigeria won’t rest until it takes your life! He was learning how to draw from me. Though he was in school, he ran a forex trading Enterprise. He did legit, he always wanted to be legit and Nigeria killed him for it. Up Nigeria! You guys have done it again,” he told The Guardian.
