An oil magnet, Jide Alawiye, has called on the acting Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to investigate how he was abducted from Lagos by a top Police officer, taken to Abuja, intimidated, harassed and forced to pay a huge sum of money to a suspected fraudster, without cause.
He lamented that the incident, which took place three years ago, led to series of actions by police authorities in Lagos and Abuja, only for the case to be abandoned at the instance of the top police officer, after detailed investigation was carried out at the instance of former Inspectors General of Police.
Giving details of his abduction, Alawiye stated: “Triber Energy Limited chartered a ship from Finneke Shipping Limited (ship managers) in 2018. The payments, as agreed with the bank and Finneke, were to be credited to the account of Zirconia Marine and Energy International Limited (owners of the vessel) who were indebted heavily to Union Bank (UK) Plc.
“As at July 2019, there was a $175,000 outstanding payments, which an unknown Kehinde Ogbor wanted to convert to cash payment fraudulently. To achieve that, he enlisted Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Kontagora of Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCID, Port Harcourt, and they agreed to a script that began with a petition and an invitation to me as the Chief Executive Officer of Triber Energy Limited. The petition claimed that Kehinde Ogbor signed the charter with me in a Port Harcourt hotel and there was a $250,000 outstanding.
“Note that I have never met or heard about Kehinde Ogbor before this petition and invitation. The PH encounter, in Kontagora’s office, was the first. DCP Ahmed Kontagora, in a very unprofessional way, attempted a shake down and requested first payment of $20,000 cash from whatever balance is owed Finneke, which we tried to explain was not proper, as there is an underlying agreement.
“The then Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on noticing this anomaly, moved the case file from Port Harcourt to FCID annex, Alagbon, under AIG Mani. When AIG Usman Mani retired, Kehinde Ogbor, believing money was still owed Finneke, approached Deputy Commissioner of Police, Edwin Eloho, serving at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, and encouraged him to abduct, rather than invite me, claiming that I have connections and that when Ahmed Kontagora harassed me in Port Harcourt, I signed an undertaking to bring cash but I did not.
“DCP Eloho, believing there was $250,000 or $175,000 on the table for recovery, never bothered to call for the file in Alagbon, but went about requesting photos from Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, for me, tracked my phone and carried out surveillance around my offices for about two days by sending two officers, David Attamah and Patrick Azu of the Cryptography and Cybercrime Unit, in Abuja, which Eloho headed, to abduct me and to bring the casefile from Alagbon.
“It is important to note that the monies so owed Finneke ($175k) had been settled in March 2020, a year after DCP Eloho tried to recover same in March 2021, because they didn’t bother to do basic investigations.
If he did, he would have discovered that Kehinde Ogbor is not a Director of Finneke Shipping or Zirconia Marine, as we checked at CAC during our plan to sue Kehinde Ogbor at the Federal High Court.
“Further, the instruction of DCP Eloho that I be held in a hotel, which I was forced to pay for after my abduction in Lagos, was illegal and unlawful.
“After I was released, and on receiving a petition on the ‘contract arrest’, recently retired IGP Baba Alkali Usman, in order to obtain a prompt report on the matter, directed the AIG in charge of Force CID annex, Alagbon, Lagos, Usman Belel, to supervise the investigation of the abduction and professional misconducts relating to DCP Eloho, as other cases of professional misconducts relating to Eloho had been brought to the attention of the Police High Command.
“The responsibility of the internal investigation fell on the then Commissioner of Police, Anti Fraud at FCID Annex, Alagbon, Lagos, Yomi Oladimeji, who sent two invitations to DCP Eloho, which he did not honor.
“Ironically, the report, reference CB;700/X/AD.ANNEX/Vol 124/85, indicting Eloho, was sent to the FCID Headquarters, Area 10, Abuja, where DCP Eloho was able to intercept it and prevented the file reaching the IGP’s office.
“The Force CID, Area 10, Abuja, on receiving a request for the file, have been playing cat-and-mouse game with the police monitoring unit, in order to frustrate efforts at exposing atrocities committed by one of their senior officers. DCP Eloho even got his non police foot soldiers to intimidate the lawyer handling the matter for the intended prosecution of the fraudster, while efforts to scuttle internal investigation are continuing.”
