Oil magnate Jide Alawiye has made a fervent appeal to the acting Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetukon, urging him to initiate a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding his abduction by a high-ranking police officer from Lagos to Abuja. Alawiye alleges that he was subjected to intimidation and harassment by the officer, as part of an attempt to coerce him into paying a substantial sum of money to a suspected fraudster without any valid reason.
According to Alawiye, the incident occurred three years ago, and despite detailed investigations carried out by police authorities in both Lagos and Abuja, the case was eventually abandoned at the behest of the implicated top police officer. The oil magnate shared his account of the events, stating that Triber Energy Limited had chartered a ship from Finneke Shipping Ltd in 2018, with payments to be credited to the account of Zirconia Marine and Energy International Ltd, the owners of the vessel, who owed a significant debt to Union Bank UK Plc.
Alawiye revealed that an individual named Kehinde Ogbor attempted to fraudulently convert an outstanding payment of $175,000 to cash, and in pursuit of this scheme, enlisted the help of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Kontagora of Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) in Port Harcourt. A script was concocted, accusing Alawiye of having an outstanding payment of $250,000 with Ogbor. However, Alawiye claimed he had never met or heard of Kehinde Ogbor before this incident.
When the former Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, learned of this irregularity, he transferred the case file from Port Harcourt to FCID annex, Alagbon, under AIG Mani. However, after AIG Usman Mani’s retirement, Kehinde Ogbor allegedly influenced Deputy Commissioner of Police, Edwin Eloho, serving at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, to resort to abduction rather than an invitation, with the belief that Alawiye could help recover the supposed outstanding sum.
DCP Eloho, without retrieving the case file from Alagbon, conducted surveillance on Alawiye’s offices in Lagos and orchestrated his abduction with the assistance of officers David Attamah and Patrick Azu from the Cryptography and Cybercrime unit in Abuja. It later emerged that the monies owed to Finneke had already been settled in March 2020, rendering the abduction and actions taken by DCP Eloho unjustified.
Following the receipt of a petition on the ‘contract arrest,’ retired IGP Baba Alkali Usman directed AIG Usman Belel to supervise the investigation of the abduction and professional misconducts relating to DCP Eloho. The internal investigation was entrusted to Commissioner of Police, Anti Fraud at FCID Annex, Alagbon, Lagos, Yomi Oladimeji. However, DCP Eloho failed to honor the two invitations sent to him for the investigation.
Despite efforts to hold DCP Eloho accountable for his actions, the report indicting him was intercepted and prevented from reaching the IGP’s office, with the Force CID, Area 10, Abuja, allegedly impeding the investigation and intimidating the lawyer handling the intended prosecution of the fraudster.
Jide Alawiye is now seeking the IGP’s intervention to ensure justice is served and that the alleged connivance with a suspected criminal is thoroughly probed, and those responsible are held accountable for their actions.