The Inspector of General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, has ordered in-depth investigations into the remote circumstances surrounding the demise of a Police Inspector, Inspector Taiye Atobaloye.
Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi disclosed this in a statement on Saturday.
Before his demise, Atobaloye was on Quick Intervention special duty from Oke-Onigbin Divisional Headquarters, Kwara State, to the Zone 8 Command Headquarters, Lokoja, which covers Kogi and Kwara States.
It was learnt that the inspector had declined the posting to the Zone 8 headquarters 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, The Punch reported.
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The report quoted Atobaloye’s wife, Oluwabukola, as stating 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 claimed that several attempts to call her husband afterward were unsuccessful, only for a policeman to call a family friend a week later that her husband was dead.
Oluwabukola said she attempted to call her husband’s phone again and a policeman picked up the phone but dropped it immediately she asked to speak with her husband.
She alleged that her husband was killed and demanded justice.
“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,” Oluwabukola said.
The FPRO promised that justice would be served in the matter.
Adejobi 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 (9) 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 on 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.”
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