A love story that started in Nigeria
between two lovers, leading to marriage, has degenerated into divorce, power
play, blackmail, accusations and counter accusations.
Caught in the middle of this drama
are the Metropolitan and Nigerian police. While the Metropolitan police are
presently looking at the merit of extraditing the man identified as Bankole,
their Nigerian counterparts are laughing all the way to the banks.
It was gathered that the Nigerian
Policemen, who are investigating the marital issue have allegedly been extorting
the estranged couple, Bankole and his ex-wife Eileen.
While the policemen allegedly
collected money from the woman to ensure that her former lover was extradited
from UK, the policemen turned to Bankole, demanding money to stop his
extradition.
The policemen, who are pulling these
strings, are attached to the Police Interpol Section, Force Headquarters,
Abuja.
The Force Public Relations Officer
(FPPRO), a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Frank Mba, while expressing
anger over the policemen shenanigans, said that he had received complaint from
Bankole on the issue and vowed to fish out the policemen.
Mba, while elaborating on supposed
extradition documents sent to UK Police, said: “If there is a serious
crime, the security of a country will have to collaborate with the other
country in the operation process, that is, after the two countries have
investigated and come to agreement. Extradition does not involved case of
husband and wife, except it has to do with murder, fraud. Whatever is
the crime must be investigated by both countries and come to an agreement.”
This is not the first time some
Nigerian Policemen have been dragged into the drama between Bankole and his
wife. The drama with different policemen
started almost three years ago, where they illegally arrested Bankole former
lover, Mercy, who had a daughter for him.
Mercy resides in Ondo State, but
policemen from Alagbo, Lagos State, broke all protocols including jurisdiction
laws, failed to follow procedure and went to arrest Mercy.
The matter between Bankole and Eilen
has been taken to different courts, at different occasions, and at each
occasions, it has been struck off as lacking merit. One of the accusations
earlier leveled against Mercy was impersonation.
Mercy was locked up in police cell
at Alagbon for days until she fell sick and desperately needed medical
attention. The policemen, who were alleged to be acting on instructions of
Bankole’s ex-wife, refused to grant Mercy bail, even though she didn’t know her
offence.
She was eventually bailed after a
concerned police officer, worried by her depreciating health, secretly gave her
a phone to contact a journalist.
In another power play, Bankole’s
ex-wife reported him to Metropolitan Police that he carried out genital
mutilation on his Nigerian born daughter, whom he had with Mercy.
Mercy has since remarried and had
other children. The matter was also looked into. The latest drama right now is
the extradition.
According to suit No:
FHC/ABJ/CS/1415/18 at the federal high court in the Abuja division, between Bankole
Oni Ogunnowo and the Attorney-General of the federation and Inspector-General
of Police
“The nominal complainant is the
estranged wife of the plaintiff in this present suit. She is a Briton of
Nigerian extraction, who was born and raised in the United Kingdom and only
comes to Nigeria for visits, while the plaintiff is a Nigerian and has lived in
the united kingdom since 2012.
The plaintiff and the complainant,
Mrs Eilen Adetokumbo Ogunowo, got married at the Ikeja Marriage Registry, Lagos
on the 18th day of February, 2012. Subsequently, the Plaintiff at
the invitation of the complainant, moved over to join her in the United
Kingdom. The couple was living in peace and the Plaintiff eventually started
working. Trouble, however, started when the complainant and her mother , who
also is in the United Kingdom, requested that the plaintiff’s employer pay his
salary into the complainant’s mother’s account and that they in turn will pay
him a commission since they were the ones housing him.”
The suit further stated: “This was a
request the Plaintiff did not agree to. This led to serious and constant
matrimonial difference between the Plaintiff on the one hand and the
complainant and her mother on the hand for one year and four months that the
couple stayed together. The plaintiff was eventually removed from the
complainant’s apartment by the United Kingdom authorities for his own safety
due to the constant harassment and domestic violence meted out to him by the
complainant. He has been on a protective watch list by the United Kingdom
Police against any attempted violence on by the complainant.”
Although Eileen and Bankole have a
child together, they apparently didn’t have a smooth divorce and some ghosts
have refused to remain buried.
Bankole however has moved on; he has
remarried and had children with a foreigner woman in UK.
He, is however, not having a settled
marriage as some Nigerian policemen keep sending myriad of documents filled
with one allegation after another. The present document facing him now is that
of extradition over alleged marriage fraud.
Some lawyers and policemen, while
speaking on when to invoke extradition on a citizen, said that it must be a
serious case like murder, fraud, forgery and others, not marriage dispute. The
police and the lawyers stated these while reacting to the attempts by policemen
to extradite Bankole.
Mr. Murtala Mani, an Assistant
Inspector-General of police (AIG), Force Criminal Investigation Department
(FCID) Alagbon-Ikoyi in Lagos, said that whatever that could warrant
extradition of a person must be a serious crime.
Mani said that in Nigeria, the
bilateral relationship with some countries of the world determines how possible
to carry out an extradition of her citizens, through the embassies in those
countries.
Mani added: “If there is any crime
that warrants extradition, the embassy looks into it with the host country and
by agreement, workout the extradition operation. The embassy will be involved,
that is one of their duties. It depends on the crime, before the Nigeria
government can seek for extradition of person such as murder, forgery, fraud.
It is sometimes difficult to extradite a person from another country depending
on the agreement of both countries. However, the Nigerian government or
security agencies cannot extradite anyone on personal matters or family case.
Your crime must be against the country of resident and your home country.”
A Lagos based Constitutional lawyer,
Mr Spurgeon Ataen, said: “Murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, drug
offences, trafficking in humans are extraditable offences because they are
crimes in both countries, that is to say the country seeking extradition and
the country the offender escaped to after committing the offence. Nigeria
has extradition treaty with several countries of the world. Therefore, it is
only with those countries she can either extradite or seek extradition. This
may be a way to check the rampancy of such crimes or stop recidivism in respect
of such crime. However, my opinion is that all indictable offences should
be extraditable except crimes orchestrated by the state for purposes of
witch-hunting and silencing legitimate opposition.”
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