DEJI LAMBO writes on the plights of two policemen who became victims of injustice in the course of fighting crime
Against all odds, two ex-policemen, Shola Akano and Babatunde Glorious, have been relentlessly seeking justice against senior policemen accused of compromising a criminal case linked to a notorious armed robber identified simply as Ajadi in Kwara State.
However, the duo’s stance came at a cost – dismissal; since then, Akano and Glorious have been confronting the Herculean task of proving their innocence.
But in the daring quest to achieve their aim, they, unfortunately, steadily got pitched against the accused police officers, who, among others, had been reportedly using their influence in the police system to silence their outcry for justice.
However, these ex-policemen managed to fight their way up to the highest echelon of the Nigeria Police Force to achieve their aim of getting justice to no avail, they said they are resolute.
Amid the risks encountered, and the unexpected twists compounded by a series of deceitfully orchestrated plans the accused policemen executed to overturn their bid at getting justice, Akano and Glorious say they still believe that light exists at the end of the tunnel in their quest to ensure that truth prevails in their case against corrupt policemen responsible for their unjust dismissal from the NPF.
Short-lived victory
However, an effort by these determined ex-policemen at getting justice almost paid off in 2021; the effort came through a video story recorded by our correspondent and colleague, Olabode Olalekan.
In the video story released online by PUNCH Newspapers, Akano and Glorious, while briefly encapsulating their ordeal in the hands of corrupt senior policemen, appealed to the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to grant them an audience regarding their case.
The video trended; it hit a home run, as the IGP ordered an investigation into the case. But the investigation was short-lived, as an uneasy silence engulfed the process. Why the investigation took such an unexpected turn, especially with the involvement of the IGP, remains a mystery to date.
The genesis
The episode that pitched Akano and Glorious against their former colleagues started sometime in December 2018.
Back then, the ex-policemen were working at the Public Complaints Bureau of the Kwara State Police Command.
According to Akano, an armed robbery victim, Abdulrazaq Omowunmi, who owned a Toyota Camry car with a Lagos number plate, reported a case of car theft to the state Police Public Relations Officer, Okesanmi Ajayi.
The 39-year-old said the PPRO reported the case to the former state Commissioner of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, who assigned the duo’s unit to investigate the case.
Akano said, “The PPRO, thereafter, wrote to the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department and the DC duly signed the investigation activities.
“Myself, Babatunde Glorious, and one other policeman were assigned to investigate the case and we tracked the stolen car to Keffi, Nasarawa State, where we arrested two suspects, John Opagbile and Charles Ogbutuyi.
“We also recovered Omowunmi’s car alongside other stolen vehicles and the military uniforms the suspects used for their operation. But things changed when we brought the suspects along with the stolen cars to the police command in Kwara State.”
Lagos, Nasarawa discovery
Akano said when they returned to the command, the suspects were subjected to further interrogation which led to the unravelling of two shocking discoveries.
He said during the interrogation, they were able to link the suspects’ criminal activities to a notorious criminal known as Ajadi, adding that they were also able to discover how the suspects made stolen vehicles untraceable for the owners.
He explained, “The suspects we arrested mostly targeted vehicles with Lagos number plates just like the number plate on Omowunmi’s car. After stealing his car, they took it to Nasarawa State. Through the investigation, we discovered that the vehicle licensing authority in Nigeria uses the same database to license vehicles in Nasarawa and Lagos states.
“So, vehicles with Lagos number plates, after being stolen, were taken to Keffi, Nasarawa, where compromised vehicle inspection officers at the licensing office will use the database to access the profile of the stolen Lagos registered vehicles and change it to an innocent victim’s profile or replace it with untraceable names and addresses.”
Akano said it was after he and his colleagues had recovered Omowunmi’s vehicle that he opened up to them that an innocent lecturer at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, was initially arrested instead of the suspects.
He explained that the mix-up happened because the lecturer’s profile popped up when the policemen Omowunmi initially contracted attempted to track his vehicle.
The ex-cop said, “We revisited the licensing office in Keffi, Nasarawa, to arrest the errant VIO officer linked to the crime but we could not get him. The head of the licensing office in Keffi also confirmed to us that Lagos and Nasarawa shared the same database.
“We were making significant progress but at the command, we were facing intense pressure from our superiors who offered us N8m to drop the case but we rejected it.
“Surprisingly, we received a signal from ACP Adegboyega Oyeleye requesting that the case along with the suspects and the stolen cars we recovered should be transferred to his office. We informed the PPRO and he informed the CP, who, through the PPRO, said we should ignore the signal.”
More woes
While still grappling with the unyielding pressure from superior policemen bent on ensuring they dropped the case, the Kwara State indigene said another strange development happened.
He explained that he wanted to feed Opagbile and Ogbutuyi who were detained in a cell at the SCID when he saw two officers, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Ali Abdukadri and Sergeant Tawa Ajibola, who were not part of the team investigating the case, interrogating the suspects without their knowledge.
Akano said he challenged them and later informed the PPRO, who told the CP that had been briefed about the senior policemen’s attempt to subvert justice in the case, and the CP gave an order for Abdulkadri and Ajibola to be detained.
After they were detained, Akano said their family members and a retired police officer visited the CP to beg him to release them, adding that while being questioned for interrogating the suspects, Abdulkadri said Ajadi, who, unknown to him, the investigation had revealed as the leader of the car theft syndicate, had been engaging them since they arrested the suspects in Nasarawa State.
The Kogi State indigene said, “During the deliberation, the retired police officer who intervened on their behalf said he owns a motor park and that he is in charge of some of Ajadi’s vehicles at the park. He said Ajadi would respond to him if he calls him and appealed to the CP to allow Abdukadri to come with two policemen to arrest Ajadi.”
Akano said he, another policeman and Abdulkadri went to the location the retired policeman said Ajadi would meet him.
When they got there, he explained that the plan by Abdukadri was that when Ajadi appeared, he would enter his car, ensure that he switched off the engine and signal to them to swoop in and make the arrest.
The ex-policeman said, “We had no choice but to follow his directive as he was a senior officer. When Ajadi came, Abdulkadri entered his vehicle, and we were waiting for his signal when Ajadi suddenly zoomed off with Abdulkadri. We chased after him but couldn’t meet up.
“When we later saw Abdulkadri, he said Ajadi pushed him down while driving in motion. That was how we could not arrest Ajadi and this same Abdulkadri, as of that period, later became the officer-in-charge of a police post built by Ajadi in the state.”
However, as the investigation was ongoing, our correspondent learnt from the ex-policemen that Egbetokun assigned another case involving a petition written by a woman, Fausat Abdullahi, and her son, Ridwan, to their unit for investigation and they were also assigned to handle the case.
Akano said, “It was a case of advance fee fraud and the investigation activities were duly signed by the DC SCID. During the investigation, we arrested the two suspects and brought them to Ilorin where the PPRO interviewed all the parties including the complainants and the suspects along with their lawyers.
“The suspects were later released on bail after they agreed to settle out of court but they refused to report back to the police. The PPRO is aware of everything, but as plans were on to re-arrest them, the next thing we received was a call from ACP Jephetah Shaonetimote, demanding we meet him at ACP Oyeleye’s office, and from there, we were arrested, detained and tortured in a cell for 15 days, and thereafter dismissed around March 2020 while still in the cell.
“They accused Glorious of converting one of the suspect’s phones to his personal use which was not true, and that we conspired with the complainants to extort money from the suspects, which was also not true, and the PPRO debunked this. We also have a voice recording to prove our innocence of the allegation. They (accused cops) also said we did an illegal investigation on the advance fee fraud case.”
Akano said the accused cops believed they never possessed duplicate of the documents authenticating the advance fee fraud case investigation because while in detention, the senior policemen removed the documents validating the investigation from the original case file initially submitted to them just to suit the narrative that the ex-policemen did an illegal investigation.
Glorious, while lamenting that the accused senior policemen framed him with the stolen phone allegation, said they took advantage of both of them being detained to advance their agenda, including the release of the recovered stolen cars to the suspects, asides from Omowunmi’s car, which had been released to him “as we followed due process.”
However, after regaining their freedom and upon realising that the senior policemen had reportedly taken advantage of their absence to perfect their clandestine plan, Glorious said they wrote an appeal on the case to the CP; the Zonal Headquarters in Lokoja, and the Force Headquarters in Abuja, but got no response.
“When we waited and got no response, PUNCH Newspapers did a video story on our case and it went viral and caught the attention of the IGP. On December 30, 2021, the PPRO, Ajayi Okesanmi, sent a text message to my phone that I and Akano are to come with him to the Homicide Section in Room 214, Force CID, Abuja, as the IGP had ordered an investigation into the case,” the 34-year-old said.
Glorious said the notice on the IGP’s order for an investigation into their case gave them a sigh of relief as they believed justice was in sight.
“We were truly happy,” he said, noting that they quickly travelled to Abuja to the Homicide Section where they met the PPRO and the agitating officer of the Kwara State Command, CSP Akandu Oyegbu.
Our correspondent gathered that the ex-policemen were taken to the investigation room and informed that three weeks before their visit, the accused policemen including ACP Oyeleye, ASP Kolawole Oluwafemi, Sergeant Ajibola, Inspector Francis, Abdulkadri, and the then OC Legal of the Kwara State Command, among others had visited regarding the ongoing investigation.
Glorious said, “When we got to the Homicide Section at the Force CID, the Investigating Police Officers told us that the impression the accused senior policemen gave them was that we were faceless criminals and will never show up.
“Right there, we were given a cautionary statement form to write our statements, we wrote and submitted the statements alongside all our evidence including soft and hard copies to them.”
Staggering evidence submitted
According to Glorious, the submitted evidence included voice recordings of ACP Shaonetimote telling his team lead we did not commit any offence; a voice recording of one of the lawyers of the suspects in the advance fee fraud case who said he was threatened to give false evidence against us; and another voice recording of the same lawyer confessing that we never requested or collected money from him.
He also said the voice recording of the PPRO pleading with them that Egbetokun needed to see them as they did not commit any offence and another voice recording of a former Deputy Force Public Relations Officer pleading for a level playing ground to settle their case involving the accused senior policemen were also submitted.
Glorious added, “We also submitted voice recordings of SUPOL Kolawole Raphael and Ali Abdulkadri discussing money with the suspects in the hope of settling us with it which we rejected; and the part where the PPRO, Ajayi Okesanmi, despite being aware of the pressure and schemes the accused senior policemen deployed to disrupt the car theft case, said everyone knows that the police is corrupt and that even if we put the news in the newspaper, people will just read and nothing will happen.
“As for the documents, we tendered the two dismissal letters one of which was signed by Adegboyega Oyeleye, who was in charge of administration and had no power to dismiss any police officer or even constables; and a petition from the complainant to the CP on the advance fee fraud case to nullify the claim that we did an illegal investigation.
“Others are three investigation activities to Nasarawa/Abuja for the robbery case; forged court order that the accused policemen used in releasing the stolen vehicles to the armed robbery suspects we arrested; the letter Adegboyega Oyeleye sent to our office ordering the transfer of the case file and the exhibits to his office; and letter sent to our office to speak to him on that same robbery case.
“We also submitted forged Customs duties, vehicle particulars and number plates that the car theft suspects used in operating; information on how the suspects stole vehicles and make them untraceable; documents on how the suspects for the advance fee fraud case fraudulently withdraw money from the bank accounts of innocent Nigerians; the bank accounts the suspects transferred all the money into; and about 30 pictures of stolen cars we recovered in Nasarawa, among others.”
Glorious said the most surprising aspect during the investigation conducted at the behest of the IGP was when the policemen assigned to investigate the case said there was no formal complaint against him and Akano, and that all the allegations against them were framed up by the accused senior officers.
He stated, “The IPOs delegated by the IGP to investigate the case also said we shouldn’t have gone to the media and we showed them the appeal letters we wrote to the state command, the zonal command, and on three separate times to the Force Headquarters, but no one called us to hear our side of the story.
“During the investigation in Abuja, we were also told that the IGP would like to see us and we waited for about two weeks but got no chance to see him. When we no longer had the money for lodging and feeding, we complained and at one point, it was the head of the investigation team, CP Shalom Dong-Jiang that fed us for three days.
“We were told we didn’t commit any offence and since we left Abuja on January 18, 2022, nobody has contacted us. We are appealing to the IGP to help us get justice and be reinstated; if we did anything that warranted dismissal and the investigation ordered by the IGP proved the same, we won’t have been released when we visited the Force Headquarters in Abuja. We honoured the call because we are innocent and provided evidence to prove it.”
The shocking protest
Over the years, the clamour for responsible policing in Nigeria had been on the increase as arguments against police brutality, open extortion of citizens, extrajudicial killings, blatant misuse of firearms, and human rights abuses, among other atrocities committed by policemen against people were rife in the country.
There were online agitations against the backdrop of these dehumanising actions, among other acts unbecoming of policemen. The agitations, however, morphed from mere online campaigns into what became widely known as the #EndSARS protests that pervaded different streets across states in Nigeria.
The protests, however, came along with attendant consequences; lessons were learnt on the part of the government, police and protesters, among others, but the rights abuses by policemen persisted in the society.
In Lagos State, which was the epicentre of the #EndSARS campaign that shook the nation, a trigger-happy policeman, ASP Drambi Vandi, is facing trial for shooting a pregnant lawyer, Omobolanle Raheem, dead on December 25, 2022.
In Delta State, an Inspector, Ubi Ebri, was dismissed by the state police command for allegedly shooting a 26-year-old man, Onyeka Ibe, along the Ugbolu-Illah Road in Asaba over a N100 bribe.
Similar situations leading to policemen’s unwarranted killing, brutalising and extorting of unarmed civilians despite no imminent threat to their lives had also been reported in different states in the country.
However, these ignoble actions are also prevalent among officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force as there had been reported cases of policemen engaging in rights abuses, and excessive use of power, among other acts contravening established rules regulating the affairs of policing in the country, against their colleagues.
In Lagos State, until retiring as Deputy Inspector-General of Police, James Opara occupied a lodge meant for the Divisional Police Officer at Ilupeju when he was a DPO and refused to give up the lodge for 20 years, depriving other DPOs assigned to the station access to the property.
Also, an Inspector with force number 232980, Taiye Atobiloye, serving at Oke Onigbin Police Division, Kwara State, reportedly died in a police cell at the ‘D’ Division of the Kogi State Police Command after being detained on the instruction of senior policemen at the Zone 8 Command, Lokoja, Kogi State, for being absent from special duty in the state for two days.
Although the spokesperson for the Zone 8 Command, Ruth Awi, in her defence, said Atobiloye was found drunk and was detained for the effect of the drink to be cleared to make him fit for interrogation for being absent from duty, the deceased cop’s wife, Oluwabukola, however, alleged that her husband was tortured to death for rejecting the special duty after a senior policeman used him as a replacement for another inspector that was originally selected for the assignment in Kogi State.
Naming-and-Shaming
These debilitating acts policemen commit against their colleagues, against the backdrop of other atrocious crimes committed by policemen against unarmed civilians in society, are said to not be entirely depictive of the image of the NPF.
Oftentimes, when policemen run foul of extant laws in their dealings in society, Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, has fondly argued that the accused policemen exhibited what psychologists described as deviant behaviours, which see them violating the psychological, moral, and social norms and principles adopted in society.
As a countermeasure, reforms and policies including the naming-and-shaming strategy, among other solution-driven techniques, were implemented to enable policemen err on the side of caution in their dealings, and also to serve as a deterrent, and by extension, to rid the NPF of the bad eggs polluting its image.
Recently, three policemen, Sergeants Abdullahi Badamasi, Isah Danladi, and Inspector Dahiru Shuaibu, attached to a popular Kano musician, were dismissed for the offences of discreditable conduct to wit misuse of firearms, abuse of power, gross indiscipline, and wastage of live ammunition, after a viral video on April 7, 2023, showed them firing into the air with their pistols and AK-47 rifles while escorting the musician into his car at a ceremony.
In continuation of the war against misconduct in the Force, six officers, Inspector Sunday Amadi, Charles Amajuoji, Sgts Chinese Noachian, Emmanuel Onwuka, Cpl Goodness Nzewuodo, and Constable Emmanuel Chimezie, caught in a viral video on April 20, 2023, using a machete to smack two male adults in Imo State, were detained by the police command.
Statistically, between October 2022 and April 2023, the police authorities reportedly dismissed no fewer than 21 cops and reprimanded over 40 for various offences ranging from abuse of power to gross indiscipline and extortion.
Many others were also demoted by the Police Service Commission on the recommendation of the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, who had been playing a pivotal role in the institutionalisation of discipline and professionalism in the NPF.
Not all bad eggs
Meanwhile, in the same measure, there have been records of policemen who exhibited exemplary conduct while discharging their duties being commended by the IGP.
In a statement in August 2022 by the Force PRO, the IGP commended a Divisional Police Officer, Nasarawa Division, Kano State, Daniel Ameh, for rejecting a $200,000 bribe in a case leading to the arrest of an armed robbery syndicate.
Similarly, the IGP, in another statement by Adejobi in March 2022, commended police officers including Sergeant Sampson Ekikere, attached to 22 Police Mobile Force, Ikeja, Lagos; Sergeant Yahaya Ahmed attached to Higher Shari’ah Court, Tudun Wada Division, Gusau, Zamfara State, and CSP Elemide Akinkunmi Bishop, who was Head of Operations at the Police Radio, for rejecting N300,000 bribe and returning N600,000 paid into one of their accounts in error.
Impressed by the conduct of the policemen, the police boss charged senior police officers to always commend their personnel for positively impacting the goodwill and image of the NPF through exemplary discharge of their duties.
However, according to the ex-policemen, the reverse is their case despite upholding the tenets and ethics of the policing profession.
Selective discipline
The reforms and policies that influenced the actions taken by the leadership of the NPF to enforce discipline appeared to have excited Nigerians as some people had been heaping praises on the NPF for its dedication towards combating indiscipline and unprofessionalism in the Force.
But there had also been criticisms against the police authorities for allegedly being selective in the treatment of cases of discreditable conduct of policemen in the country.
Arguments including the giving of expedited attention to cases of citizens’ outcry for justice after they had capitalised on the unfettered access created in digital cyberspace to expose the ignoble actions of policemen against people, and the rot in the NPF to the global audience, had gained momentum.
Also, lamentations against the snail speed nature or the uneasy silence that usually greet the request of people who decided to trust the police system by writing petitions against alarming infractions committed by policemen, among others, had been of a huge concern.
Taking a cue from Akano and Glorious’ case, they said upon realising that the accused senior policemen had taken advantage of their unjust detention for 15 days to allegedly facilitate the release of the recovered stolen vehicles to the suspects and their entreaties, they wrote other petitions.
“We wrote appeal letters to the state command, the zonal command, and on three separate times to the Force Headquarters but no one called us to hear our side of the story,” Glorious said.
Questionable silence
Following a video story published by PUNCH Newspapers on the duo’s case, the IGP gave an order for an investigation into their case and after an invitation from the Force Headquarters, they visited and tendered all evidence needed to vindicate them.
“We won’t have been released if we were found guilty; even the head of the team that investigated the case on behalf of the IGP said the same thing,” Glorious said, adding that the continued silence on their case was questionable.
He said, “Ever since we got dismissed in July 2020, we have been striving for justice with overwhelming evidence but got nothing, despite doing the right thing while investigating the cases.
“ACP Adegboyega Oyeleye has been promoted to DCP; ASP Ali Abdulkadir is now a DSP; Sergeant Ajibola Tawa-Oluwakemi is now an Inspector, while ASP Kolawole Rapheal is now a DSP.
“The former CP of Kwara State, Egbetokun, is now a Deputy Inspector-General of Police. He is now in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department, the same unit that investigated our case on the order of the IGP and set us free after the investigation revealed that we were innocent.
“Before we left Abuja, the investigating team told us the report of the investigation was submitted to the former Principal Staff Officer to the IGP, Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, whom the IGP detailed to monitor the case as he was the one that drew the IGP’s attention to the viral video made by PUNCH Newspapers regarding our case.”
One fact in the case of these ex-policemen seeking justice for close to three years is that the IGP, Usman Baba, had been availed of all the facts and findings of the team he detailed to investigate the case.
The humble prayer of these ex-policemen to the IGP, who is a staunch proponent of discipline and professionalism, and an unashamed respecter of upholding justice, is to help them fight the battle to the end for them to achieve the long-awaited victory against the accused corrupt policemen.
According to Akano and Glorious, the IGP’s team was able to unravel that we were dismissed based on an ill-conceived conspiracy instigated by their senior colleagues at the Kwara State Command.
The buck of the work rests on the shoulders of the IGP to come to the aid of Akano and Glorious.
Oyeleye, when contacted to hear his side of the story, declined to speak with our correspondent.
Also, in his reaction, Abdulkadri said some people (policemen) recently came from Abuja to take their statements and refused to give further comments.
Contacted, Ajibola said, “About two months ago, they (policemen) came from Abuja and we have also gone to Abuja because of the case sometime last year or the year before. I have maintained the same position that I got involved in the case because they (Akano, Glorious and Supol Niyi) arrested my younger brother, John Opagbile, in Nasarawa.
“They said he bought a stolen car and when I approached them, they said they are still investigating the case and that all the suspects have been detained and the stolen vehicles recovered and one of the recovered stolen vehicles that Opagbile bought had been handed over to the owner.
“They said the person Opagbile bought the vehicle from is a thief and they are after the suspect. After two weeks, I met with them but they said they are yet to arrest the suspect that stole the vehicle. I later received a message from Niyi that the case had been charged to court on the directive of the CP, Egbetokun. That is all I know about the case.”
Reacting, the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, said Akano and Glorious’ dismissal was justified.
He said, “Their dismissal was justifiable; the case file has even been reviewed by lawyers of the police and they recommended that they should be charged to court.”
