Some residents of Lagos State have accused some police officers of alleged connivance with suspected criminals to violate the peace of their neighbourhood.
The allegation is against the backdrop of alleged criminal activities of a 34-year-old man at Akesan, Igando in the Alimosho area of Lagos State.
The residents said the police had been shielding the suspect, alleging that officers were bribed in order to frustrate all efforts to arrest him.
Our correspondent gathered that the suspect, Ifeanyi Nwokolobia, who moved in to Odukoya Street, Afolabi, a popular section in the area, two years ago, had allegedly been harbouring dozens of “fierce- looking young men,” whose sources of livelihood were unknown and suspicious.
The residents said efforts to get security agencies to check the activities of Nwokolobia and his cohorts were in tandem with the “Operation Know Your Neighbour” initiative of the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr. Edgal Imohimi.
A landlord in the area, Mr. Dickson Onome, said, “Time is ripe for the state authorities and unbiased security agencies to properly investigate the activities of Mr. Nwokolobia and his cohorts.
“This young man came into our peaceful area about two years ago and completed his mansion under six months and ever since then, he has been tormenting and terrorising the neighbourhood with his boys, whose source of living is unknown to us.”
Onome recounted an incident, some weeks back, when a missing child was freed from Nwokolobia’s residence.
He said the development instigated a mob action that almost saw the suspect’s home being razed.
Another resident, Mr. Gbenga Adeoye, told our correspondent that police operatives from the General Investigation Department at Alagbon, lkoyi Lagos, had, in May last year, stormed Nwokolobia’s houses at No. 10 Odukoya Street and 19 Salawu Street in the Ajegunle area of the state, and whisked him away after a search was carried out on the two homes.
“How that man (Nwokolobia) came back from Alagbon Police, despite all incriminating evidence that was said to have been found in his house, remains a mystery to our neighbourhood,” he said.
Meanwhile, our correspondent learnt that shortly after the suspect’s arrest by policemen from Alagbon division, Nwokolobia’s mansion was again raided last December by police operatives, led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bolaji Salami of Panti Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, Lagos. He was also said to have been arrested.
This, it was learnt, was in connection with the alleged abduction of Onome’s wife, Josephine.
“Because Nwokolobia suspected me of being behind his arrest and investigations, they hatched an evil plot and used Ekene to lure my wife into Nwokolobia’s house under the pretence that the couple was fighting, and immediately she entered their compound, they locked her up, ordered her to kneel down under the sun, seized her phones, humiliated and tortured her while taking photographs of her torture. They accused her of spreading rumour that Nwokolobia was a ritualist,”
Onome said.
But in a petition addressed by Onome’s lawyer, Mr. Oyeleke Oyeniran, to the police in Zone II, Onikan, Lagos, he noted that an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr. Sule Danladi, who is attached to Area ‘M’ Command and some other officers were frustrating the case, stressing that the officers had been bribed.
He vowed to employ all legal means to get justice, despite what he described as compromise by the police allegedly induced by
gratification.
When our correspondent contacted Nwokolobia, he denied the allegations, saying they were unfounded.
“I am a licensed clearing agent at Apapa. I am not a ritualist. I have only seen Onome once and may not recognise him if I see him,”
he said.
While confirming that police officers from Alagbon had last year arrested and searched his home over a whistle blower’s report, he said nothing incriminating was
found.
“Yes, I was arrested by police officers from Alagbon, Panti and Idimu Area command, but at the end of investigations, they freed me because the allegations were false. This present trouble now is mere domestic quarrel between my wife, Onome’s wife and other women over gossip by Onome’s wife that I am a ritualist,” he said.
However, the Chairman of Ilado Akesan Community Development Association, Elder Tunde Orugbangbam, in a telephone chat, confirmed that he was aware of the matter but said that the CDA had waded into the crises with a view to bringing peace back to the neighbourhood.
Orugbangbam, who confirmed that Nwokolobia is a resident in the area, denied being aware of the allegations of ritual practice by the
accused.
Efforts to get the comments of the principal police officers accused of bribery and compromise was not possible as at press time as they declined to comment.
