Actress Sarah Martins has alleged that she was harassed and assaulted by officials of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps, popularly known as KAI, while cooking free meals for the poor in Lagos.
In a video on Instagram on Thursday, the actress was seen crying and holding her swollen hand after hot oil reportedly spilled on her during the encounter. She was said to have been cooking on a road median around Lekki Ikate bus stop when the incident occurred.
An eyewitness in the video said the officials poured hot oil on Sarah and seized her cooking equipment. Another bystander claimed they also poured away the food she prepared.
“I cook on the streets of Lagos. Today, I came here and these officials hijacked what I was using to cook for the people. Along the line, hot oil spilled on my hand – see, my hands are swollen,” she said tearfully.
Sarah, who founded the Golden Heart Foundation, said she was carrying out her regular street outreach when the officials disrupted her work.
She captioned the video, “My heart aches. Today as I was cooking free food for the vulnerable and homeless people on the street of Lagos like I always do, some uniformed men came there, harassed me, bullied me and took away the food I was cooking, took away my cooking gas and everything I was making free food with.
“My only offence was serving love on a plate through my healthy meals. I am not a chef and I do not cook to sell. My heart aches.”
In the early hours of Friday, the Sarah shared another video showing her receiving treatment in a hospital for the burns. She captioned the post, “It will only get better. Thank you Heavenly Father for blessing me with these two angels. I’m so blessed to have you both in my life.”
