Wife accuses police of abducting husband in Lagos

A pregnant woman based in Lagos State, Vivian Ikechukwu, has accused some police officer attached to the Intelligence Response Team of the Nigeria Police Force of abducting her husband, Joseph Ikechukwu, alongside his friend, Solomon Adeniyi, on the premises of the Force CIID, Alagbon, Lagos State.

PUNCH Metro learnt in an exclusive interview with Mrs Ikechukwu on Thursday, that her husband’s ordeal began after he sold one of his landed properties and a friend who was privy to the transaction requested a 10 per cent commission from the proceeds of the sale.

She stated that her husband refused to give the friend a commission because he was not the one who brought the buyer for the land, a decision which angered the said friend who allegedly threatened to deal with the husband.

The wife noted that some weeks after the argument on the commission, some policemen attached to the IRT stormed their residence in the Ipaja area of Lagos State, arrested her husband and took him to the Ota Area Command in Ogun State where they allegedly subjected him to torture, and extorted him of N2m before releasing him.

She alleged further that the officers proceeded to lure his friend, Adeniyi, into the incident and also extorted him to the tune of N3m.

She said, “After my husband refused to give this land agent the 10 per cent he requested because he was not the one who brought the person that bought the land, he threatened to deal with my husband.

“Some weeks after we returned from a trip, some police officers arrested my husband at our house in Ipaja, took him to Sango where they tortured him and collected N2m through a POS agent before releasing him. After he was released, they forced him to lure his friend too and extorted his friend of N3m.”

Mrs Ikechukwu noted that after a human rights group intervened in the matter and a petition was submitted to the FCIID, Alagbon, they were invited alongside the police officer for a briefing where the officers were asked to return at a later date with the household items they carted from their home.

She continued that on the day they were to visit Alagbon for further briefing, the police officers refused to show up for the meeting and as she, her husband and his friend including the human rights representatives were leaving the premises of Alagbon, some police officers swooped on them, pointed guns at his husband and whisked him and his friend away.

She narrated that several efforts to locate the whereabouts of her husband had proved abortive as she did not know where he was taken to or the condition he is presently in.

“After we submitted the petition at Alagbon, an investigation was initiated into the matter. Parties were interviewed by the DCP in charge of the Homicide Department, and he instructed that SP Rotimi should report back with his team, the case file and all the household items unlawfully looted from our house.

“On Friday, we returned with the victims, but SP Rotimi and his men failed to appear. Instead, they ambushed us, abducted my husband and his friend, and have held them in custody since then. I don’t know their whereabouts since then. I am nine months pregnant and due for delivery and I have been traumatised by this incident.”

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Force CIID, Alagbon, Aminat Mayegun, told our correspondent that the said officers were not under the command of Alagbon.

She suggested that our correspondent reached out to the Ogun State Command for clarification.

When our correspondent contacted the Otta Area Commander, ACP Olusola Bamidele, on Thursday, she noted that though the officers shared the command premises with them, they were not under the Ogun State Command as they are working directly with the IGP.

“The officers share the same compound with us but they are not under the Ogun command. They work directly with the IGP,” the Area Commander said.

Our correspondent reached out to Mayegun to inform her of the Otta Command’s claim but she had yet to respond to the message as of the time of filing this report.