Policeman Prostrates, Begs For Mercy at End SARS Panel (Photos)

A police officer escaped punishment after appearing before the Ogun judicial panel of investigation by prostrating and begging for mercy. It was gathered that the police sergeant, Adeleke Olalekan only escaped punishment by the whiskers on Monday before the intervention of other panel members who pleaded on his behalf. According to DAILY POST Adeleke was said to have accompanied one CSP Gbenga Megbope to the Judicial Panel sitting at the Magistrate Court 1, Isabo, Abeokuta in respect of a petition filed against him. When CSP Megbope was answering questions at the panel, the sergeant was seen making gestures, pointing fingers and speaking disrespectfully in a manner suggestive of threat at panel members from where he sat. A member of the panel, who saw Olalekan’s reactions, quickly raised the alarm and he was invited to come and explain what was described as contempt against the panel. However, Sergeant Olalekan, who escorted his supposed boss to the panel from Ibadan, could not explain his actions. Without much ado, he was booked for appropriate punishment as stipulated under the Commission of Inquiry law. Reeling out the law against the offender, the Panel Chairman, Justice Solomon Olugbemi (rtd), said, “any person who commits an act of contempt, whether the act is or is not committed in the presence of the Commissioners sitting in Commission, such person or persons shall be liable to summary conviction before a court of competent jurisdiction to be convicted and punished according to the tenet stipulated in the law”. Hearing this, the policeman wasted no time as he prostrated, begging the panel to forgive him. Olugbemi stated that the Police Sergeant ought to be recommended for trial at the Magistrate court, but he was let go because other members of the panel had also pleaded on his behalf The panel refrained from recommending him for trial, warning that it would no longer tolerate any act of contempt against it or any of its members.