Joy Anyim
A retired Captain of the Nigerian Army, Bernard Ize-Iyamu, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu, to quickly intervene in his ordeal in the hands of some officers of the Nigeria Police Force.
According to Ize-Iyamu, his ordeal started in 2012, when the officers, then in Zone 2 Police Command, allegedly intervened in a matter and in the end sold most of his properties in Lagos in the name of ‘order from the then AIG Zone 2’.
Recounting how it all started, the aggrieved man said, “I had reported an assassination attempt on my life to the police at Area F in Ikeja. The case was later transferred to Zone 2 command for investigation.
“When the matter was moved to Zone 2, one of my colleagues said he knew somebody in zone 2, who would ensure that nobody cheated me. That was how I went to Zone 2, wrote a petition to them.
“But one officer, called Bode Fakaye, a Superintendent of Police (SP) then, started tormenting me with his people. Later, I realised that he was working with my brother, Ize-Iyamu Osazu. They all connived and sold my properties. They changed the case to a property case.”
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Speaking further, Ize-Iyamu mentioned the properties, as follows:“The assets are two buildings housing the Black and White Enterprises at Dopemu, behind Diamond Bank, houses at Nos. 38, 40, 42, Abeokuta Street, Ikeja, and 110 Awolowo way Ikeja.
“Also, houses at Nos. 5, 75,77 Oregun; 238, Herbert Macaulay; 88 Old Otta Road, where I have two duplexes; Global Garden, the company’s guest house in Abuja; 11, Towobola, Egbeda; a building of two flats, 32, Ogunaike, off Alimosho Road, then about 20 plots of land at Opic, Mowe.”
Ize-Iyamu stated that his brother and the police officers he identified as: Bode Fakaye, Funsho Alabi, Jude Ngobili and another, simply identified as Asemota, connived and said the then AIG Zone 2 said they should sell the properties.
Narrating his ordeal further, the retired captain said he was abducted and almost killed by the said police officers. “They paid one Assistant Superintendent of Police, known as Appolite, N6 million to assassinate me when they were selling my property at No. 5 Oregun. They were exposed by a Bureau -de -Change operator in Allen, who came to the house and started shouting “captain, they have paid police N6 million to assassinate you.”
“The man came to tell me because those after me were owing him money and they had refused to pay him. My wife and I had to run out straight to the police command.
“When I perceived they were planning to sell my property at 119, Abeokuta Street, Ikeja, I moved to report to AIG Zone 2, but when I got there he was not around; I was told he went to Abuja. So, I said I was going to Abuja to meet him there, but they stopped me from going to Abuja. Later, they came to my house and abducted.
“They took me before Bode Fakaye, and I was kept in detention for four days. I fainted there. When they saw me, they threw me outside, thinking I was dead. It was a good Samaritan that carried me and dropped me at Police Hospital at Falomo, and that was where I woke up.”
He said he was also framed by the policemen, and tried at the Igbosere Magistrate for an offence he never committed. He said he was also sent to Ikoyi Prison for four days, before he was able to secure his release.
Speaking on his last petition to Zone 2, Ize-Iyamu, said: “I recently wrote a petition to the new AIG Zone 2 dated November 2, 2018, to revisit my case and investigate the horror I went through in the hands of some officers there.”
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Calling on the police high command for help, following his seven-year torment, the retiree said, “These people have tormented me enough; that is why I am calling on President Muhammadu Buhari, the Ministry of Defence, Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Army Staff to come to my aid. If anything happens to me, they should hold the Inspector-General of Police responsible.
“They have already killed my wife. I am also calling on the Police Service Commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Federation, to help me out.”
The Nigerian Xpress also contacted Fakaye, who is now an Assistant Commissioner of Police serving in Kano. The ACP spoke to the correspondent on phone and denied the allegation, saying Ize-Iyamu was not mentally okay.
Fakaye said: “Ize-Iyamu is a psychiatric patient. I met him 13 years ago, as a Superintendent of Police. Their father of blessed memory retired as an Assistant Commissioner of Police. I was brokering peace between him and his brother just because of the respect I had for their late father. Because I told him the truth about wanting to take over everything their father left, he termed me evil and said I was working with his brother, Osazu.
“I don’t know why he is going about spoiling my name. Why would I sell his property, do I have a title document to the properties? I only investigated and handed over my report to the AIG in 2012.
Speaking further, Fakaye said, “ If you even contact his mother, who is still alive or his brother, they will tell you his kind of person. In this matter, he has lost his wife and he does not see it as important to make peace. Well, I did not sell his so-called properties.”