Outrage as police provide account for N800,000 bail payment

Soetan

As a lawyer, Fazaz Daud has seen a lot of things in the course of his job. But his recent experience at Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) Annex, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos State, left him reeling in shock.

According to him, he had gone to Alagbon to facilitate the bail of his clients, when a policeman, identified as Lateef, who detained his clients, not only demanded N800,000 for bail, but went a step further to provide a First Bank Account number 3077959396, with Account Name Obono Wilfred Calistus, where the bail money would be lodged.
Shocked at what he described as shameless and flagrant display of corruption, Daud on behalf of the Movement for Islamic Rights and Justice (MIRAJ), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), demanded that the Nigeria Police Force should refund the bail money and sack the corrupt policeman.
The encounter with Lateef and his colleagues started after Daud’s client, the Baale of Oluwanishola village, Gbalefa, Atan Ota, Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area, Ogun State, Mr. Folorusho Soetan, was arrested along with two others, Olatunde Ololade and Muyideen Najeem.
According to Soetan, the arrest was orchestrated by Omoniyi, who was contesting the position of Baale with him. He alleged that Omoniyi equally wanted to get his hands on some parcels of land in the village.
Narrating the genesis of the trouble between him and Omoniyi, Soetan said his great grandfather was the founder of Oluwanishola village. After the reign of his father, the Baale title fell on him. He said that the villagers supported his coronation in 2016.
The Olowu of Owu Kingdom and Alake, the paramount ruler of Egbaland, affirmed his coronation.
The activities in the village no power to install Baale.” Since Soetan was not ready to tamely give up the throne, a cold war ensued between him and Omoniyi.
Soetan said that sometimes in November 2015, Omoniyi came with policemen from Ogun State Police Command, Eleweran, to arrest him and other members of the village. Soetan said they were handcuffed like common criminals and whisked away.
He said: “Omoniyi told police that he went to the state Ministry of Chieftaincy Affairs and that he was approved as the Baale.
But it was all a lie! The next day, Omoniyi brought bullet shells, claiming that we used guns to threaten them. But the police told them that the bullets were those from police guns.” Soetan said they were granted bail.
They alerted their lawyer, Daud, who drafted a petition to Force Headquarters, Abuja. The IGP’s Monitoring Unit, Kam Salem, Obalende, was instructed to investigate the case.
During the investigation, police wrote letters to Oba of Ota and Alake of Egbaland over the issue of the rightful Baale. The Alake was said to have replied the police in the affirmative. Soetan said he, however, couldn’t get a copy of Oba of Ota’s reply.
While, the investigation was yet to be concluded, Omoniyi allegedly brought surveyors and policemen from Sango-Ota Police Command into the village and attempted to encroach into the land of Dewale Adebari and Femi Adebari.
The brothers kicked against the encroachment. Daud said: “On June 22, around 10pm, policemen came from Alagbon.
We later heard they booked at Sango-Ota Police Station. The policemen from Alagbon came with policemen from Sango-Ota. They were armed and wore mufti. They stormed the village in two vans.
They wanted to take the Baale away. The villagers thought the policemen were kidnappers.
When the villagers attempted to find out who they were, they started shooting sporadically. People scampered in different directions. They arrested the Baale, Tunde Olalode and Muyideen Najeem.”
The following day, the villagers marched to Africa Independent Television (AIT), on a peaceful protest. They said their lives were no longer safe, since men in mufti could invade their community and whisk people away without any valid reason.
While Soetan and the two men were in detention at Sango-Ota Police Station, the policemen from Alagbon got across to their family members, demanding a bail of N300, 000.
The family told the police they wouldn’t part with any money until they heard from their lawyer. When Daud got to Sango-Ota Police Station the following day, he discovered that Soetan and others had been moved to Alagbon.
The policemen at the station gave him the Investigating Police Officer’s (IPO) phone number, later identified to be Lateef.
Daud said: “I called Lateef; he said if I wanted to talk, I should come to Alagbon. When I got to Alagbon, he wasn’t there. I called him again; he said he was at the hospital with some of the policemen that the villagers injured. I asked him the name of the hospital.
I told him that I wanted to join him, so that I could see the patients and how we could assist. He said I shouldn’t bother.
He asked me to come back again the following day, which was a Friday. “As early as 10 am, I was already at Alagbon the next day. I asked him what offence the men committed.
He showed me a petition, written by Omoniyi, alleging threat to life. When I asked him why policemen opened fire on the hapless villagers, he said I was bringing ‘lawyer’ into the issue and that he would bring ‘police’ into it and ensure that the Baale and others spent two weeks in detention.
” Daud then told him that he would like to take the bail of his clients. Daud didn’t know that anytime Lateef stepped out from his presence, he would go to Soetan and others, demanding they call their relatives to bring money for bail. Lateef demanded N800,000 and gave them a First Bank account.
When the relatives said they couldn’t afford N800,000, he said they should pay N500,000 and nothing less. When they further pleaded, Lateef said they should deposit N200,000 for a start and later deposit the balance of N300,000.
Daud said: “The family members couldn’t even raise the N200,000. They were able to raise N189, 000 and paid into the given account. The balance remained N11,000. Lateef said his boss, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Administrative Section, Alagbon, refused to give consent for the bail of the men. I insisted that I wanted to see the DCP.
I explained everything to the DCP. The DCP said the Baale and the two men, who were old men, attacked armed policemen. I told him it wasn’t possible. “He said that the Area Commander, Sango-Ota told him that his vehicle was damaged by the villagers.
I told him that threat to life was a bail able offence. The DCP said we should wait. It was raining that day; we waited in the rain until 5pm. Soon, we saw him driving out. We also discovered that Lateef had left. We went to meet another team member called Dickson.
He said the Baale and others still had N11, 000 to balance.” When Daud further demanded the bail of the Baale and others, Dickson told him that he would have granted the men bail, but, “people that were supposed to take their finger prints and photos had gone home.”
Sensing they wouldn’t get anywhere that day, Daud and others left Alagbon around 7pm. The following day, Soetan called his daughter, Ranti. He called her with Lateef ’s phone. He begged her to try all means possible to raise the remaining N11, 000 or police wouldn’t release him. Ranti took the money to Alagbon on that Saturday and handed it to Soetan.
Soetan said: “Lateef said I should collect the money from Ranti and give it personally to him. I later gave the money to Lateef on Monday.
While I was in detention, Lateef said if he had followed instructions given to him concerning me, I wouldn’t be alive. He said he would have set me up by planting a corpse in our community or a gun.”
Daud, who said the issue of rightful Baale, should be quickly settled by all concerned bodies before it escalated into a bloody war, called on the acting Inspector-General of- Police, (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to investigate the indicted policemen.
Daud added: “We strongly request for a transparent investigation of all the officers and their corrupt practices. We also request this case be personally investigated by the IGP. We also demand a refund of the N200,000 collected by Lateef and others.
The lives and property of the villagers of the Oluwanishola village, should be protected from hoodlums and police authority.”
Reacting to the incident, Sango- Ota Area Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr. Adegoke Fayade, said: “I’m not Alagbon. I’m just an area commander. What’s my business with Alagbon? I don’t know anything about the matter.
They came from Alagbon on investigation, they would need to get to the area command and we would allow them to do what they want to do.
They were from a superior office. Alagbon is headed by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG). I don’t have any authority to question what Alagbon policemen came to do. I don’t know about the arrest or what transpired between them and the villagers.”
Asked if his men were attacked by the villagers or any of his vans damaged as alleged by the DCP, Fayade said: “That is far from the truth! Nothing like that happened. I have three patrol vehicles and they are all working very well.
None of them is damaged.” Our correspondent also called the DCP in charge of Administration, Alagbon, identified as Mr. Fave, he said: “If I’m to demand money from someone, would I give the person my account number?
I have nothing to do with that issue. All I know is that they brought a man, whom they said is a Baale. They said he resisted arrest. When his lawyer came, I told him that his client resisted police arrest.
Police went to the village with the Sango-Ota Area Commander to make an arrest, but the villagers damaged his vehicle.”
According to Fave, after speaking with the lawyer, he called all the parties, including Omoniyi and charged them to go and maintain peace. Fave further asked his men to grant Soetan and others bail that same Friday. He added: “I warned all of them to go and maintain peace.
The man that came to New Telegraph Newspaper is not the actual Baale. He’s contesting with the rightful Baale.
Why should I discuss money with them? They don’t know what they are saying. I can’t even believe that my boys gave their account number to suspects to deposit money. Investigate properly, people can be funny.”https://newtelegraphonline.com/outrage-police-provide-account-n800000-bail-payment/