By Owolola Adebola
Chairman of the Lagos State Task Force, Shola Jejeloye, a Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP, is currently being grilled by the Police homicide detectives, attached to the Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCID, Police Force Headquarters, Abuja, on the order of the Inspector General of Police, IGP.
The grilling of the police chief was sequel to the the murder in Lagos, of a Police Sergeant, identified as Edison Fulman, with Force Number 500314, who was shot dead in the line of duty.
The ill fated Sergeant, was in company of 16 other policemen, attached to AIG Zone 2 Command Headquarters.
They were actually detailed to provide security at Etegbin Village (Olubode Egbin), in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State for a family that had taken legal possession of a land, following a court judgement in their favour.
It was in the course of providing security at Etegbin that they were suddenly ambushed by a group of “broken- bottles and matchet wielding hoodlums, numbering about 50,” who inflicted them with injuries.
One of the invading strangers was said to have fired a bullet from their gun which reportedly mowed down the Police Sergeant, “on the 14th of February, 2022.”
Meanwhile, the heat generated by the shooting and killing of the Police Sergeant led to indepth investigations by the X Squad, Police Provost Marshall and carefully selected homicide detectives drawn from the FCID Headquarters, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Area 10, to investigate the remote cause of the blood-letting activities that led to the killing of a police officer, who died in line of duty during an unprovoked attack.
It later emerged that hoodlums associated with land grabbers were ostensibly mobilized on the strength of the presence of CSP Jejeloye and Hon Ojelabi, a political party chieftain, who having misled some government officials at Alausa that undesirable elements were formenting trouble at their community and which apparently led to the mobilisation of the armed Task Force officials.
The hoodlums were also said to have used the ensuing confusion to kidnap 13 other persons, whose whereabouts are still shrouded in mystery.
Meanwhile, the X-Squad, Provost and top-rated homicide officers from the FCID, Abuja, in the course of their investigations made a handful of arrests. It was in the course of finding out what really transpired that the Task Force Chairman, a CSP, became an interesting party presently under investigation at Force Headquarters, Abuja, because he was said to have led a detachment of his fully armed officers with some government functionaries, including Hon. Cornelius Ojelabi and Hon Wale Ahmed to the land the day of the mayhem on the instructions of the Chief of Staff to the Lagos State governor.
Efforts to hear him out were not successful, as his mobile number was switched off. However, an officer in his office, who pleaded not to be named, said he had been summoned to Abuja by the office of the X-Squad, Provost Office at the IGP’s office, Police Headquarters, over the Etegbin matter.
Chief Morof Owonla, an interested party to the Adeoku family property had during our investigation said that 13 of his workers were abducted against their wish by the hoodlums and ferried away through the sea to unknown destination.
The visibly shaken business man said that the missing workers include the following: Ganiyu Ogunbakinde; Olumide Omoakin; Jamiu Osama; and Azeez Oloye; Akeem; Taiwo; Dayo, Wasiu, whose surnames are not known.
He, however, added that others who escaped death by the whiskers sustained various degrees of injuries and were promptly rescued by the alerted policemen attached to Ajangbadi Division.
Indepth investigations revealed that there had been a lingering tussle between one Adeoku Family and another family over the legal ownership of hectares of land in the community. The matter was adjucated upon by Justice O. Oshodi of the Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja, who, after listening to the two parties delivered judgment in favour of the Adeoku Family.
It is our belief that the Police High Command will not allow this case of monumental murder, and abduction get swept under the carpet, without stiff penalties for erring Policemen, going by the Inspector General of Police’s stance on anti-corruption and curtailing indiscipline in the Police Force.
