*Lagos Task
Force demands N250,000 to release corpse
The wife of the bus conductor,
Toheeb Olayiwola, who was allegedly killed by an official of the Nigeria
Customs Service, fainted yesterday on hearing of her husband’s death.
The Customs official was alleged to have
shot and killed
Olayiwola at Abule-Egba, two days after his wife delivered a
baby through a Caesarean Section.
Eye witnesses claimed that the officers
opened fire on the bus driver and Olayiwola because they refused to part with
N2000 bribe.
Speaking yesterday, Toheeb’s elder
brother, brother Salami, said that it was not easy for their family members to inform
the deceased’s young widow about her husband sudden demise.
He said: “We had no option than to
withhold the news of her husband’s death from her until we no longer could. We paid
for the hospital bills to ensure she and the baby was quickly discharged from
the hospital. She was discharged yesterday. When we eventually told her, she
collapsed and lost consciousness. We thanked God that the lady didn’t die after she was
informed of her husband death, because they love each other too much. She will
be staying with Toheeb’s mother. We want to appeal to Lagos State government to
come to aid of the young widow and her baby, because things are very tough for
them.”
He further complained that the family
members had not been able to burial their brother as Lagos State Task Force was
allegedly demanding N250, 000 before the corpse could be released to them.
Salami explained that after the shooting and death of Toheeb, officials of the
Lagos Task Force came to pick the corpse.
Salami noted: “The Oke-Odo Divisional
Police Officer, Mr Ben Adeola, advised us to go and get an affidavit before we
could collect his corpse for burial. When we got the affidavit and went back to
him, he said that the case was no with his station. We need to burial him. We are
Muslim people. We don’t keep dead bodies for long. On getting to Lagos State
Task Force, they demanded for N250, 000. We don’t have such an amount of
money.”
The Nigeria Customs Service , Federal
Operations Unit Zone A , Public Relations Officer, Mr. Jerry Attah , didn’t pick
his calls and also didn’t reply text messages to his phone.
The Public Relations Officer of Lagos State Task
Force, Mr. Adebayo Aribidesi, denied that the Unit demanded N250, 000 from the
grieving family.
Aribidesi said: “In the first instance, the
corpse is not with Task Force. Task force only intervened to restore normalcy
and orderliness at the scene of the incident that happened at Abule-Egba. It is
left for police to do their duties. Anybody that is going to collect a corpse
from a mortuary should have a police report.”
No comments:
Post a Comment