A Police Commander, Halilu Muawiya, has been accused of stalling a car theft case at Festac, Lagos.
A driver, Ifeanyi Chukupeter, had reported the case of a stolen Toyota Corolla car (ash colour), with registration number JJJ88DC, at Festac Police Division.
He said the robber, who he identified as Chris Ngwu, boarded his vehicle to Lekki area of Lagos before he was lured to sleep with a chemical substance.
“I am aware the hotel owner is his friend, and so, he had to release the hotel attendant who gave a room to the carjacker and also served him food without collecting his name, details, even money before he left. You can see the game that is being played here. The police should not have released the hotelier to provide the carjacker”
The driver, who was also detained by the Police operatives at the division over the issue, explained that he woke up in a hotel to realise that his car and other belongings, like phone, ATM cards, had been carted away by the carjacker.
The suspect also allegedly used his (driver’s) phone to fraudulently collect money from his family, claiming that the driver had been arrested by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
Meanwhile, a hotelier who, the complainant said was suspected to have facilitated the theft with the robbery suspect was later detained by the DPO of the division.
But it was gathered that the case turned around when the Officer in Charge of Area E command allegedly ordered the release of the suspect.
Speaking on the matter, a relative of the car driver, who did not want his name mentioned, said, “The Area Commander told them to release the only available suspect to track the carjacker after he was called by the hotel owner.
“I am aware the hotel owner is his friend, and so, he had to release the hotel attendant who gave a room to the carjacker and also served him food without collecting his name, details, even money before he left. You can see the game that is being played here. The police should not have released the hotelier to provide the carjacker.”
But the area commander, while speaking with The Point, denied perverting justice despite the release of the hotel attendant.
“Then we started heading towards the second rainbow. On getting to the second rainbow, he said he needed to call his girlfriend to do the transfer of the agreed amount (N20,000), into my account. Then I got an alert of N20, 000 on my phone”
He said an investigation was ongoing on the matter, despite the release of the hotelier that was detained by the DPO.
“The fact that the suspect was released does not mean investigation will not go on. We are on the matter and investigation is going on. Releasing someone doesn’t mean we are not on the matter,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the car driver, Ifeanyi Chukupeter, while sharing his side of the story, said, “On the 8th of July, which was Wednesday, last week, I took a lady to Festac. After she alighted, a fair-skinned young man stopped me. He was on a bike, and he pleaded with me that he needed to go to Chevron after Lekki.
“Then we started heading towards the second rainbow. On getting to the second rainbow, he said he needed to call his girlfriend to do the transfer of the agreed amount (N20,000), into my account. Then I got an alert of N20, 000 on my phone.”
He said, on getting to Mega Chicken at the second rainbow, the ‘passenger’ ordered him to stop, that he needed to get something to eat.
He added, “Then I stopped at Mega chicken. When he came out, he said he forgot something in his hotel room at Festac; that I should please take him back to pick it up. He entered the car and we drove off. When we got to 400 Road at Festac, he asked me to stop, that he needed to pick something from someone, so I stopped again and he alighted.
“Then, he entered into a compound close to FCMB. I decided to withdraw some cash from the money transferred to me only to realise that the N20,000 was not in my account.
A few minutes after I entered my car, the guy came back and I told him that I did not see the money he sent to me. He tapped me on my shoulder and said ‘don’t worry, you go see am soon.’
That was the last thing I could remember, only for me to wake up in the morning in a hotel room.”
The driver said he was still in shock, trying to remember how everything happened, when the hotel receptionist knocked on the door of his hotel room, requesting for payments for the bill of food, drink, room and others.
He explained, “The receptionist told me that the guy that brought me had left the same night. He told me he tried paying for the hotel room, the food and drinks, with my ATM card, and I gave him my pin, but that it showed insufficient fund, and the guy said he wanted to go and use the ATM to collect cash.
“When I realised what happened to me, I borrowed a phone to call my sister and I told my sister everything. My sister said that since last night, somebody had been using my phone to chat with them, that I was a drug dealer and that the NDLEA saw drugs in my car and I had been arrested.
He was asking them to send money to my account so he could withdraw and beg those people to leave me.”
He said his sister told him that the suspect had been telling everyone to send money or the NDLEA guys would kill him (the driver).
“Out of panic, my sister sent money. My sister asked for the name of the hotel where I was, and I asked the receptionist. She said it was Festac Brayarms hotel, Brayarms Suites, 6th Avenue,” he said.
The driver further explained, “When she (his sister) arrived, we went to a police station to make a report. On getting to the police station, I wrote a statement and I explained everything that happened.
They said I was a crime suspect as well because the car was not mine. The hotel receptionist also came, so the DPO asked them to detain the two of us.
“We were detained overnight at the police station. I didn’t know what happened, but the next thing was that they brought us out and they took us to the Area command for us to go and meet the area commander.
The man blamed me for everything that happened. Later, I learnt he had released the hotel guy.”
