Several weeks after two suspects were allegedly abducted from the custody of Ikorodu Police Station, there appears to be no clue yet on their whereabouts. An audio recording of a meeting the parents of one of the suspects had with the police and exclusively obtained by our correspondent, KUNLE AKINRINADE, reveals a plea by the DPO of the station with the distraught parents to soft pedal on their demand for the whereabouts of their son.
Bisiriyu Kabir is anything but happy at the moment. The once bubbling man hugged sadness with the disappearance of his son in controversial circumstances. Waidi vanished from police custody without a trace after he was arrested on November 20, 2015.
Bisiriyu’s bloodshot eyes tell the story of the bouts he has had with tears. For a few minutes inside his sparsely furnished room at his Ikorodu residence, he struggled with his guttural voice to recap the arrest of his son and alleged abduction from the police cell where he was detained. His voice gave way to emotions midway and tears rolled down his cheeks.
If Bisiriyu was sad, even more so was his wife and Waidi’s mother, Karimot. With the weight of her jaw on one of her palms, she stared into space as she bemoaned the family’s plight with words of lamentation intermittently punctuated with heavy sighs.”Unh, I want to see my son alive and police must bring him out from where he is being kept,” she said.
Which parents of the ages of Bisiriyu (53) and Karimot (45) would not be devastated realising that their son has not been found more than one month after he was said to have been abducted from the police cell?
As the story goes, 26-year-old Waidi, a musician, was arrested during a raid carried out by men of the Ikorodu Police Station on November 20, 2015, on Shelewu Street in Igbogbo area of Ikorodu and was subsequently detained at the station on suspicion that he belonged to a secret cult.
As he was being taken to the station, Waidi was said to have managed to call his father on his mobile phone and the latter quickly rushed to the station to secure his son’s bail only to be turned down by policemen at the station after they allegedly spoke with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the station, Mr. Remi Adesoye, on the phone.
Bisiriyu said: “The police have ruined my joy this year. My son is a hip- hop artiste and has already recorded some songs. He was preparing to record new songs for his forthcoming album when he was arrested on November 20, 2015.
“He even used his mobile phone to call me at the time he was arrested on Shelewu Road, Igbogbo, Ikorodu, and I quickly rushed to the station where I saw him being driven into the station in a police van.
“ I inquired from the leader of the police team that arrested him and he said my son would soon be released to me on bail. One of the policemen I met told me that the N4,000 I brought to the station was not enough to secure his bail and I left.
“I later came back with N5,000 but I was told that the DPO had taken over the case after speaking with one Lanre Olabinjo, a chieftain of the local vigilance group, Onyabo. On Saturday November 21, I brought food for my son at the station and was there till late evening trying to secure his bail, but I was told that the DPO was not around.
“I went to the station again on Sunday to give him food, the policemen at the counter said he (Waidi) had gone out with the DPO. I later learnt from one of those detained with him in the cell that he was abducted from the cell by three masked men at about 3 am on Sunday. I was told that a senior police officer led the masked men to the cell and that my son was forcibly taken away bounded and crying. I gathered that the masked men were members of the Onyabo vigilance group.”
Exasperated by the indifference of the police to the whereabouts of Waidi, Karimot wrote a petition to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, asking for thorough investigation of the DPO’s alleged complicity in the abduction of his son from police custody.
The petition, dated November 25, 2015, written on her behalf by a human rights activist, Prince Apata Akinsemoyin, reads: “On November 20, 2015, along Shelewu Road, Ikorodu, Waidi Kabir, alongside others, was arrested during a police raid, taken to Ikorodu Police Station and detained there.
“The news reached his father who headed straight to the station and met Waidi Kabir in detention. He requested for his bail, but there was no favourable response. He has been going there to give his son food and, to his surprise, when he visited the station on Sunday November 21, 2015, Waidi Kabir was not found in the cell, according to the policemen he met at the counter.”
The petitioner further accused the police of complicity in the disappearance of her son.
She said: “He (Kabir’s father) repeated the visit on Monday November 22, 2015, only to be informed that Waidi Kabir had been released on bail. This aroused his curiousity regarding who the surety was, but no positive response was forthcoming from the police.
“I am the mother of Kabir and also visited the station. The officers I met at the counter after checking their records said Waidi Kabir, who was arrested during a raid, had been released, but when and to whom?
“I hereby wish to bring it to your attention that up till now, the whereabouts of Kabir is still unknown and we strongly suspect a foul play. The time has come to critically interrogate the DPO and the role he played in this matter. If Kabir has been released, who was he released to?
“The circumstances in which he was released to the surety needs to be clarified, because Kabir is 26 years old, and if he was released, he could have come straight to his father who paid him several visits and took food to him while in police custody, more so that his father had actually requested for his bail but was bluntly refused. So, on what ground was he released to the (unnamed) surety and for what offence was he actually arrested?
“This is strange to me and we would like the police to produce the surety, else the entire policemen involved in this matter need to explain the sudden disappearance of Kabir from police custody at Ikorodu Police Station.”
Like Waidi, like Omobowale
While the Lagos State Police Command was battling with the mystery surrounding the alleged disappearance of Waidi from the custody of Ikorodu Police Station, another family accused the embattled DPO of complicity in the disappearance of another youth, Sodiq Omobowale, from the police station.
Omobowale was said to have been arrested by men of Onyabo, led by one Lanre Olabinjo, at his residence at Atewo Jaiyesinmi Itumeko area of Ikorodu on July 7, 2015, and was accused of belonging to a cult group. He was detained at the Ikorodu Police Station and all efforts by his family to secure his bail were fruitless.
A few days later, Sadiq’s family was allegedly told by a police source that their son had been released to the Onyabo vigilance group. To date, the 23-year-old youth is nowhere to be found.
The Nation gathered that efforts made by Omobowale’s mother, Mrs Kemi Agbaje, and a relation, Ibrahim Azeez, who went to the station to secure his bail yielded no fruit. Agbaje said she was later informed by policemen at the station that her son had been released to the dreaded vigilance group by the DPO.
She said: “When we approached men of the Onyabo vigilance group, they told us to look for him at the Lagos State Police Command, and we have also visited many police stations and prisons all to no avail.
“We went to the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja, the Federal SARS at Adeniji Adele and Ikoyi, Kirikiri and Badagry prisons, but the name of my son was not found in their records. The DPO later said that my son was a cultist and that we should not bother looking for him.”
Dilemma
The Lagos police spokesman, Joe Offor, however, told The Nation that a formal complaint had not been lodged by Omobowale’s family.
Speaking on behalf of the family, the Coordinator, Women Arise for Change Initiative in Ikorodu, Mr. Adebayo Obatungase, said: “I have been following reports on one Waidi Kabiru who was also missing from the same station and it is worrisome. I can’t understand why the police would allow some people to abduct a suspect detained in a station. We are appealing to the authorities to show concern on this matter.
“Omobowale’s mother (Agbaje) brought the matter to our notice and all efforts to locate the boy were in vain. We urged the state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, to do everything he can on this matter”.
If the family members of Omobowale were ensnared by despondency, which accounted for their long wait before crying out over the mysterious
disappearance of their son from the said police station, it has not been so with Waidi’s parents, who have not taken the matter lightly with the police in the last few weeks. Waidi’s father, Bisiriyu, said he had been piling pressure on the police to produce his son but there had been no clue on his whereabouts.
Bisiriyu said: “We have visited the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja and State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba, more than three times. Although the police have not been able to produce my son, I won’t stop putting pressure on them until my son is returned to me alive.”
He also said that he had appealed to one of the leaders of Onyabo, Lanre Olabinjo, whose group was mentioned in the abduction saga, “but Lanre (Olabinjo) harassed me and asked me never to approach him again on the matter since he was not the police that detained my son.”
In a telephone conversation with our correspondent, Olabinjo said Waidi was a notorious cultist who had been on the wanted list of the police but had escaped arrest because the police was not sure of his identity. Olabinjo added that he was only invited to identify the suspect when he was arrested and that he and his men were not responsible for his disappearance from police custody.
He said: “I am not in any way responsible for the disappearance of Waidi a.k.a. Cyan from police custody. I only went to the station to identify him when he was arrested on November 20. For your information, Waidi is a cultist and member of Aiye confraternity and has killed more than 25 people in Ikorodu.
“The police had been on his trail for a long time but it has been very difficult to arrest him because they could not ascertain his identity. And that was the reason why I was invited to the station to identify him and I told the police he was the one they were looking for.
“In the case of Sodiq Omobowale, he is a member of Eiye cult group and he had killed more than 11 people before he was arrested. He even confessed to the killings when he was apprehended and handed over to the police. As a rule, once we arrest criminals, we hand them over to the police, and I would not know the kind of guts that would have enabled us remove suspects from police custody.
“I am a member of the Peace and Security Committee of Ikorodu Local Government Area, and I will not do anything to tarnish my image or that of Onyabo. As a matter of fact, these cultists had even attacked me more than four times in broad daylight. The police should be asked for the whereabouts of Waidi or any other suspect and not me or Onyabo.”
Futile damage control effort
When our correspondent called the embattled DPO before he was arrested on December 2, 2015, he did not respond to the enquiries forwarded to his mobile phone.
A few days later, precisely on December 7, 2015 at about 10.39 pm, a male caller, who simply identified himself as Mr Adelabu, called our correspondent on his mobile phone on behalf of the DPO, asking for a meeting with some unidentified community leaders over the matter.
Adelabu said that Waidi was a deadly cultist and had been in the habit of carrying out killings, after which he would vanish into thin air.
He said the DPO had asked him to arrange a meeting between some elders of the community and our correspondent in order to stop action on the report that was to be published. Adelabu’s unsolicited intervention was however rebuffed by our correspondent who insisted on talking to the DPO or nobody else.
It was gathered that the DPO also told some community newspapers in Ikorodu that Waidi was released to one of his family members called Ibrahim Akala.
In his reaction, Bisiriyu, however said that none of his family members bears such name, saying: “It was an after-thought for the DPO to claim that he released my son to one Ibrahim Akala, who is not known to my family.”
It was gathered that the DPO also asked traditional chiefs and community leaders to prevail on Waidi’s parents to leave the matter to God.
A meeting with the chiefs at Itupate area of Ikorodu on December 20, 2015, was deadlocked as Bisiriyu and his family members refused to be intimidated to stop the demand for the whereabouts of their son.
Fruitless attempt was also made by the DPO’s emissaries who, during a visit to the grandmother of the suspect, Mrs. Ajoke Pedro, on Lagos Island on Monday January 4, 2016, asked for her intervention to stop the demand for Waidi’s whereabouts.
Crime fighting or conspiracy?
A cross section of residents told The Nation that men of Ikorodu Police Station might have hatched a plan to contain cultists in the community by faking their disappearance from custody.
“The police have been finding it difficult to stop incessant killing of people by cultists in this community. Perhaps, the idea to exterminate some of the identified notorious culstists made the DPO to disguise their disappearance from the police custody. Although, it is necessary to tackle the deadly activities of the cultists but any action in tandem with human rights abuse or extra-judicial killing on the part of the police or any group is anti-democratic,” said a resident who did not want his name in print.
A resident of Ireshe Street, Ikorodu, who spoke in confidence, said the abduction of the suspects from the station was a crime fighting measure taken too far.
He said: “While every sensible resident of Ikorodu would be happy to see the cultists quieted by law enforcement agents, especially the police, it is indiscretion on the part of the DPO to resort to self-help without aligning with the provisions of the law in handling the suspects.
“The DPO cannot justify the mistake he made in releasing Waidi to an unconfirmed surety and also claim same in the alleged disappearance of Omobowale. It is absolutely unjustifiable.”
Embattled DPO begs Waidi’s father in exclusive audio recordings
While the whereabouts of Waidi remains unknown, the DPO was heard begging the suspect’s family members in two audio recordings of a secret meeting held in his office on the day he was summoned to the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, by CP Owoseni.
In the audio recordings exclusively obtained by our correspondent, the DPO was heard telling Waidi’s father, Bisiriyu: “Please be patient with me because all the press war will not resolve this matter…Please, let’s settle this matter amicably; all this press war will not work even though you claim that it was your in-laws that took the matter to the press. I want you to be patient enough and God willing, his whereabouts would be unravelled.”
Bisiriyu, in the recordings, asked the DPO if his son was still alive or not and faulted the DPO’s claim that Waidi was released to a man unknown to his family.
“What I want to know is whether you have killed my son or he is still alive so that I can have enough rest because I don’t believe what you (DPO) are saying that my son was released on bail to an unidentified man. I was at the station till 7 pm and I saw him (in the cell) before I left on the day you claimed to have released him to the unknown man.”
Responding, the DPO said: “As at 7 pm, I was still attending the Ikorodu Oga Day at the town hall in Ikorodu, where the Kabiyesi (traditional ruler of Ikorodu) addressed members of Oriwu Club and presented awards to some people. He (Waidi) was released on bail at about 9.30 pm and I thought that the person to whom he was released was one of your relatives. But please, be patient with me because all the press war you have embarked upon cannot resolve this issue.”
“None of my relatives came to secure my son’s bail,” Bisiriyu countered the DPO.
In the audio recordings, Olabinjo, a chieftain of Onyabo, who was also accused of complicity in the abduction saga, affirmed that Waidi was a deadly cultist and added that he would not be part of any attempt to secure his freedom, despite the fact that his late father once married a woman from the family of Waidi’s father.
“I swear by the holy Quran that if I have any means of securing freedom for Waidi a.k.a. Cyan, I’ll not do it. I am not afraid to say that it was Cyan (Waidi) that killed another cultist called Caesar. He stabbed him to death and he also shot dead one Aiyeke… Cyan and one Femi Alanpo are childhood friends and were together the day Alanpo was killed by one “Small Jesus”, but Cyan managed to escape from the scene.
“All of them (warring cultists) used to be friends until their membership and loyalty to different cult groups set them against one another. May Ogun (the god of iron) kill me if all I have said about him are lies.”
The way out
In the opinion of a senior policeman attached to the Ogun State Police Command, the DPO should be compelled to produce the suspects or face the consequences.
The top police officer, who spoke in confidence, said: “The policeman involved in this matter was careless. He should have confirmed the identity of the surety and ascertain his competence before granting the bail or releasing the suspect to him. The police authority should give the affected officer a query. In most cases, the officer would be asked to look for the suspect by all means.
“The names and addresses of the person(s) seeking bail for suspects are usually disclosed in the appropriate sections of the bail bond. But that is not enough to authenticate the surety before bail is approved. It is stated that ‘a substantive surety must show cause’ and this means that the surety must be able to produce suspect(s) on request and is liable to prosecution should the suspect(s) jump bail,” he added.
A Lagos-based constitutional lawyer, Mr Bolaji Adejumo, said the police must produce the suspect dead or alive, failing which he said the parents of the suspect can ask the courts to compel the police authorities to produce the suspect.
He said: “Whenever a suspect is arrested and detained without reasonable evidence that he was released to indentified surety, the onus is on the police to produce the suspect either dead or alive.
“The family or parents of the suspect can approach the court with a writ of Habeas Corpus compelling the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Commissioner of Police (CP) and the DPO to produce the suspect.
“Let the DPO come to the court and reveal the whereabouts of the suspect(s). Did the DPO inform his superiors that he was looking for the suspect(s) before their parents cried out? Since he did not, we cannot then assume that the suspects are missing and any other thing remains within the realm of speculations.”
In his comments, rights activist, Prince Akinsemoyin, said: “Waidi’s arrest by the patrol team along Shelewu Road, Igbogbo in Ikorodu, was not a mere coincidence but a cruelly, cunningly planned abduction.”
The spokesman of the Lagos Police Command, Mr Joe Offor, in a telephone conversation with The Nation, said: “Following the alleged abduction of Waidi Kabir and the petition sent to the Lagos State Police Command by his parents, the Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr Fatai Owoseni, questioned the DPO and asked him to provide evidence of the identity of the surety to whom the suspect was released to on bail.
“The DPO later brought a bail bond signed by the surety following which the CP ordered him to either produce the suspect or the surety within four days. The DPO at the expiration of the ultimatum could not produce either the suspect or his surety. Hence, the CP ordered his arrest and detention at the SCID while investigation is ongoing.
“At the end of our investigation, we shall issue a public statement on the outcome of our findings in the matter.
But Offor said the case of Sodiq Omobowale had not been formally brought to the attention of the Lagos State Police Command for action.
He said: “Unlike Waidi’s case that was reported to us, we have only read about the case of Omobowale in the media. The police can only act on complaints officially brought to our attention and necessary action shall be taken on such matter.”
Will Waidi and Omobowale be found? This is a million naira question for the police authority to answer as there are no clues to their whereabouts at the moment.
