Human rights lawyer commends police objectivity in case of abduction involving politician’s wife

 

 

By Chibuzo Ihegboro

 

Human rights activist and lawyer, Chief Abdullahi Dania, has applauded the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Annex, Alagbon, Lagos, for what he described as professionalism in handling a case of alleged abduction and intimidation of a contractor by the wife of a politician.

His commendation was contained in a letter he sent to the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Force CID, where investigation into the case is currently going on.
He urged the police to bring the investigation to a logical and unbiased end.

The case, according to Dania, involved a disputed transaction between one Alhaji Abdullahi Suleiman and the politician’s wife. Dania, in the letter of commendation addressed to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Force CID, Ogundele Ayodeji, mentioned Ayodeji; the Commissioner of Police, Homicide Section, as well as the head of the investigating team and the Investigating Police Officer involved in the matter, for being objective in the investigation.

 

Shedding light on the case, he explained that the politician’s wife contracted Suleiman, who is a client of Dani and Associates law firm, to supply and install lift elevators at her hotel in the Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos.

However, trouble, according to him, started when the woman alleged a delay in the execution of the project and claimed an external technician she engaged to work on the already installed lifts said the facility was fabricated and not original.

She was alleged to have resorted to self-help by subjecting Suleiman and his wife, Arinola Oriadetu Suleiman, to harassment and intimidation.

 

The letter of commendation dated August 7, 2024, stated that the politician’s wife admitted before the Commissioner of Police Homicide Section to having allegedly lured Suleiman to attend a meeting at a hotel, where the vitim alleged that he was beaten by eight persons, among whom were four mobile policemen.

 

The letter read: “At gunpoints, our client was tortured, assaulted, molested, held against his will, forced to speak on video record to implicate himself, beaten and threatened by the suspect and the policemen at the Hotel, that if he did not say what they wanted him to say in the video, they would kill him right there.
“They recorded our client in a video, asking him questions and getting him to make statements that are self-implicating, under duress, against his wish.
“Our client was thereafter forcefully taken to the suspect’s house in Lekki, Lagos, where he was further tortured and threatened to succumb to their demands in a video, which the suspects later circulated. Fortunately, a reflective mirror in the main suspect’s sitting room revealed the policemen involved in the abduction. “Our client was further threatened and forced to instruct/direct the retrieval of some lift earlier supplied to another customer in a concluded transaction. We consider all these, in our humble view, as abduction and a serious threat to life.

“The suspects drove our client to the mall with the intent to retrieve an elevator that was installed by our client to another customer, but the manager of the mall refused. The suspects took our client to his residence, threatened that he would be harmed if he did not report himself at her house the next day. Our client quickly reported to the police and ran out of the house. The suspect came to our client’s house the next day, obviously oblivious to the fact that the case had been reported to the police, and she threatened our client’s household, including his children, who are minors. Finally, after being invited by the Police, the suspect has been employing several tactics to retract and correct the aforementioned actions she led.

“She denied that it was the OC of the Police that arrested our client, seized his car and were investigating a criminal complaint against our client. She has openly boasted that she will use her influence and connection to further deal with our client if he did not withdraw this instant criminal complaint against her.”

 

Dania, in appealing to the police authorities for a speedy and objective investigation, further urged a probe of the police officers to have been involved in the alleged assault.