…the police officers allegedly involved in the arrest were detained on the order of a senior officer but were subsequently released.
LAGOS, NIGERIA- The iNews Times | The family of a Lagos resident, Osas Azenabor, has criticised the continued silence of the Lagos State Police Command over his whereabouts, 15 months after he was allegedly arrested.
They said repeated attempts to get the police to account for his location have yielded no results.
In an interview with the iNews Times on Monday, Osas’s father, Francis Azenabor, explained that his son was arrested on November 1, 2024, during a police raid. He said the arrest took place in Mile 12 and that Osas was reportedly taken to Ketu command. An eyewitness at the scene, he added, urged Osas to contact his family, which he did.
Francis said that when Osas’s wife got to the station, officers told her that her husband was not in their custody. According to him, the officers on duty advised her to check Ogudu or other stations for further enquiries.
“She visited other stations, but there was no record of him. The next day, Sunday, his mother and I went to Oshodi command. They said it was impossible for them to arrest people in Ketu and transfer them there. We searched everywhere but couldn’t find him. We also went to Badagry Prison and Kirikiri, but he wasn’t there,” he said.
Francis further disclosed that the eyewitness who helped Osas call his wife confirmed he was taken to Ketu Police Station.
“The man whose phone my son used showed me the officer who held him at Ketu. I later saw the officer at a Baba Ijebu shop. When I approached him, he immediately became confrontational. He recognised me as Osas’s father and refused to let me speak. I had already reported the matter to the Divisional Police Officer, but nothing came out of it,” he added.
He said he had sought intervention from various police authorities in the state but was continually redirected from one division to another without any resolution.
At one point, he noted, officers allegedly involved in the arrest were detained on the order of a senior officer but were subsequently released.
Francis said he had engaged lawyers and visited correctional centres and several police divisions in search of his son, all without success.
He condemned the police’s silence and failure to provide answers, saying he had been advised to escalate the matter to higher authorities.
“My son has been missing for 15 months since his arrest. I am appealing to the Inspector-General of Police and well-meaning Nigerians to help me. It has been nearly two years since I last saw him. He has three children, and I don’t know how to explain this to them,” he said.
As of the time of filing this report on Monday, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Adebisi, had not responded to enquiries. The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Moshood Jimoh, also did not return calls as of press time.
