The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, has ordered an investigation into the death of a police inspector, Taiye Atobaloye, after he was detained at the ‘D’ Division of the Kogi State Police Command.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, in a statement on Saturday, assured the family of justice.
Saturday PUNCH had reported that Taiye, who was attached to the Oke Onigbin Police Division, Kwara State, was posted to the Zone 8 Police Command, Lokoja, on special duty.
However, the policeman declined the posting after a disagreement at the division that another inspector was originally meant for the assignment.
After his attempt to reverse the deployment failed, he reported at the zonal headquarters for the special duty and was detained in a cell for absence from work without permission.
His wife, Oluwabukola, who spoke to our correspondent, claimed that his phone was collected from him as she last spoke to her husband at the point he was being thrown into a cell.
She said attempts to reach him on the phone afterwards were abortive.
The woman further alleged that after a week, a policeman called a family friend with her husband’s phone to say he was dead.
The teacher said after she made further attempts to call the phone number, a policeman picked up the phone but cut off the call when she demanded to speak to her husband.
While demanding justice, she alleged that her husband was killed.
“Aside from the accident that he had that broke his leg, my husband was not sickly. Maybe he was poisoned or the cell was sprayed with chemicals.
“I want the world to know what they did to my husband. They collected a lot of money from him and tortured him to death.
“We were married for 12 years. By this time of the day (12 noon), he would have called me about six or eight times to ask after my welfare.
“They took him from me just like that. We have had stillbirths more than four times. And now, they are asking me to come and pick his corpse as if he was an animal,” she stated.
Reacting, Adejobi said justice would be served in the matter.
He said, “Details from the zonal headquarters report showed that the inspector was posted on the 1st of April, 2023, reported on the 11th of April and was immediately posted as part of the team manning the main gate of the zonal command headquarters.
“However, he failed to report at the duty post and went missing in action for nine days, only to resurface on the 19th of April in a drunken state. He was eventually defaulted and detained for absence from duty and drunkenness. While in detention, he reportedly took ill and was moved to the police clinic, then referred to the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, where he eventually gave up the ghost.
“The Inspector-General of Police while commiserating with the families, friends and loved ones of the deceased, has tasked the Criminal Investigation Department’s Homicide Unit of the Kogi State Command to commence investigations and conduct a postmortem examination on the corpse in order to determine the cause(s) of his death.”
