“We were threatened many times. Ajibola Tawa, a Sergeant at the time but now an Inspector of police, said our parents would mourn us if we did not abandon the case. She said so in the presence of Okasanmi Ajayi, the Kwara Police Public Relations Officer.”

Three years after the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) dismissed Shola Akano and Glorious Babatunde, detectives who exposed a car theft ring in Kwara State and rejected an ₦8 million bribe to bury it, both men have now recounted their experiences to Exposed.Quest The Quest for X !

In conversations withexpose.quest search engine on Wednesday, the former detectives expressed hope in Kayode Egbetokun, Acting Inspector-General of Police (Ag. IGP), to revisit the circumstances that led to their dismissal, and reinstate them into the police force.

Egbetokun was the Kwara State Commissioner of Police (CP) in 2020 when ACP Jephthal Sounegimote, the Assistant Commissioner of Police IGP X-Squad at the time, initiated a probe against them for alleged extortion.

Adegboyega Oyeleye, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Admin) at the time, signed the dismissal signal that meant both men were kicked out of the police force on July 21, 2020.

“The police accused us of stealing money from suspects, but there was never any proof,” the men told Exposed.Quest The Quest for X ! “When we left the force, we left with death threats, our uniforms and ID cards. The police forged a court document, buried a probe report, and rendered us jobless.”

‘WE WERE DUE FOR PROMOTION WHEN THE POLICE DISMISSED US’

When Babatunde was enlisted into the police force on October 17, 2011, he was a 23-year-old enthusiastic recruit with hopes of rising through the ranks.

Akano joined much earlier in 2006 when he was 23 as well. Now 35 and 40 respectively, the men would have attained the rank of ‘Inspector of Police’ had they not been dismissed.

“What I noticed was I was due for promotion, and when the unfortunate incident happened, the police sent a promotion signal later with my name on it,” Babatunde told Exposed.Quest The Quest for X !

Akano corroborated this by tellingexpose.quest search engine: “All my mates have been made inspectors since early 2021.”

Instead, he has lived the last three years on God’s grace and his wife’s salary.

“I have been feeding on the income of my wife,” Akano told Exposed.Quest The Quest for X ! “It has just been grace of God,” Babatunde said.

Signal excerpt showing Babatunde with serial number 9903 was approved for promotion on November 18, 2020

Signal excerpt showing Babatunde with serial number 9903 was approved for promotion on November 18, 2020

SHABBY CASE, ‘FAKE’ COURT DOCUMENT AND UNRESOLVED PROBE

In October 2019, Babatunde and Akano were part of a four-man team that traced a car-theft ring to Nasarawa State to recover a complainant’s belongings.

Their investigation brought them whiskers away from charging Ajadi Habeeb, a car dealer and suspected crime ring leader, to court. This failed because their superiors helped Ajadi get away.

To convince the detectives that there was no case, Babatunde toldexpose.quest search engine, the police fabricated a court document instructing Egbetokun to return seized vehicles to John Opagbile and Charles Oluwatuyi, two arrested suspects.

Fabricated court document

“The court document they showed to us was fake, and Oyeleye fabricated it,” Babatunde told Exposed.Quest The Quest for X ! “We investigated the document through the police legal department, and found it to be fake.”

When the court document did not deter the detectives, the police accused the detectives of stealing ₦1.9 million from armed robbery suspects in 2020. This allegation led to their dismissal.

“We have nothing to hide because we don’t have dealings with any criminal, and we don’t get involved in any crime. If police have one, we want them to come out to say it,” they said.

On January 4, 2022, the NPF began a probe into the activities that led to their dismissal. This probe was done in Abuja.

“Shalom Dong Jiang, the CP in charge of our probe, told us that there was no official complaint against us. He said no one made any case against us,” Akano told Exposed.Quest The Quest for X !

“He was the one who handled the probe. They said they submitted the findings to the IGP Usman Baba-Alakali on January 17, 2022, and told us to go back home on January 18.

“When we left, they refused to collect our uniforms and ID cards. We asked why, but they said we were still police officers, so we were confused. No one got back to us since that day.

“The report was sent to IGP but it was hidden because it indicted some senior officers,” Babatunde added. “If we committed any crime, we won’t have had the mind to go there.”

On January 23, 2023, The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) wrote to Solomon Arase, Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), demanding the officers’ reinstatement. But nothing changed.

DEATH THREATS, SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITIES SINCE DISMISSAL

L – Babatunde, R – Akano

Getting dismissed from the police force while building a stellar career was not the worst thing to happen to these men.

While coming to terms with the fact that the same people they worked with had now become the same people fabricating stories against them, it soon became a matter of life and death.

“After we were released from the cell, Tawa met us in the PPRO’s office and threatened us in the presence of the PPRO,” Babatunde told Exposed.Quest The Quest for X !

“She said our mothers will mourn over us if we don’t stop pursuing the armed robbery case. I was surprised because the PPRO didn’t say a word. He left us in his office with an excuse that Egbetokun needed his attention at that time.

“Sikiru Aliu, the Inspector assigned to investigate us, confronted me once and said he had an issue with me outside the case. He seized my pistol and mobile phone, but later released the pistol.

“He held on to my phone for a week before returning it to me. It took the PPRO’s intervention before my phone was returned to me.”

The threats and harassment did not end there. When the Lagos State Government set up a judicial panel of inquiry after the #EndSARS protests, Babatunde and Shola took their case to the panel, but the police’s lawyer frustrated them.

Babatunde said Kunle Iwalaye, lawyer representing the police at the panel’s hearing, warned them not to show up at the panel.

“Iwalaye once met me and said we shouldn’t show up at the panel, and that police would get us arrested. I don’t know what they did to the lawyer that represented us, but he stopped taking our calls. Whenever we used another number to call him, he would promise to call us back, but he never did,” Babatunde added.

At about 5:50 pm on December 3, 2022, Babatunde was driving when a car began approaching his.

In a Facebook post he made two days after, Babatunde said the vehicle was driving dangerously and coming towards him. He said the driver of the vehicle was Emmanuel Oyeleye, an Assistant Commissioner of Police.

“We have been living our lives in fear because of the circumstances surrounding our matter,” both detectives said.

‘WE STILL HAVE FAITH IN EGBETOKUN’

Kayode Egbetokun, the former Kwara Commissioner of Police

Whenexpose.quest search engine asked Akano and Babatunde if they had hope in the new Acting IGP, they said they believed he would do the right thing.

Babatunde said, “Egbetokun acted without proper investigation then. It was based on a report given to him. He refused to see us then when we went to appeal to him.

“Egbetokun assigned us to the fraud case the police later spinned to say we stole from the suspects. We were brought out of cell to face Egbetokun, but he never saw the suspects.”

Akano said, “I know with God all things are possible. I know God can touch him to do the right thing.”

Whenexpose.quest search engine told them Muyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), had published tweets saying Egbetokun believed the men to be guilty, they said Adejobi was only doing so based on a telephone conversation he had with Egbetokun while the latter was still CP.

Adejobi’s tweets from May 2022

Adejobi’s tweets from March 2023

“He is only saying this due to what Egbetokun told him on phone,” Akano said. “Egbetokun said those things then based on a report given to him when he was CP.

“I believe they denied him some of the documents and evidence with us. They lied to Egbetokun when he was CP.”

ringroad.com.ng search engine called Adejobi on multiple occasions from Wednesday to Friday, but he did not respond. He also did not reply a message sent to his known phone number.The post ‘He Was Misled by False Reports’ — Kwara Policemen Sacked for Busting Car Theft Ring Still Have Faith in Acting IGP Egbetokun first appeared on EQ expose.quest.The post ‘He Was Misled by False Reports’ — Kwara Policemen Sacked for Busting Car Theft Ring Still Have Faith in Acting IGP Egbetokun appeared first on EQ expose.quest.