Policeman posted to guard private businessman goes missing
Policeman posted to guard private businessman goes missing
- He ran away during robbery incident
- —Businessman
- We are investigating his disappearance
- —Police
- I’ve not seen him since July 2017 —Wife
Femi Makinde, Osogbo
A mobile policeman, Mr. Sunday Ibrahim, who was posted out to protect a Lagos-based businessman identified simply as Salau, has been declared missing.
According to his wife who raised the alarm, Ibrahim has not been seen since July 2017.
Salau, however, informed our correspondent that Ibrahim fled during an armed robbery attack and has not been seen since then. He also claimed that a niece of his (Salau’s) died in the alleged robbery incident.
The distraught wife of the policeman, Grace, 35, narrated how she had been living in uncertainty since July 28 when she last talked with her husband on the telephone.
Grace said her husband, with service number 240620 who was serving at a Special Protection Unit, Zone 11, Osogbo, was assigned to protect the businessman and members of his family in Lagos.
She said, “My husband told me that his Oga (superior)posted him to a man in Lagos and that he would come back later.
“We used to communicate very often on the telephone. We talked so many times in a day but on July 28, I called him and he did not pick his calls.
“I repeated the call and somebody picked it and said my husband was taking his bath. I called after a while and the person told me that my husband would call me back but I did not hear from him.
“I went to the Zone 11 to ask for my husband’s whereabouts and they told me that he was posted to where there was no network and that he would call me back later.”
The woman said that despite repeated visits to the zone to know her husband’s whereabouts, in addition to her visits to the Osun State Police Command, she had not seen her husband or heard from him.
The husband’s brother, Ezekiel, also said the policeman in charge of posting at the SPU had warned him against coming to the zone to “disturb” them with the case of the missing cop.
He added that a woman at the Zone 11 even warned the family against going to report the case to journalists, saying it was the duty of the Police to do that.
The businessman, when contacted on the telephone, confirmed to our correspondent that Ibrahim was posted to him.
He added that he asked Ibrahim to escort his family on a trip in July 2017 and that the policeman, on sighting some armed robbers, alighted from the vehicle and fled.
He said Ibrahim has not been seen since then.
Salau said, “He escorted some members of my family on a trip; and between Ilesa and Ife, there was a robbery.
“The robbers shot and killed my niece. The driver told me that he (the policeman) ran into the bush and they did not see him after the incident.
“The case was reported to to the Zone 11 and to the Commissioner of Police in Osun State.
“On a compassionate ground, I paid the school fees of his children. I don’t know anything about his disappearance and you can verify from the Police.”
The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fimihan Adeoye, said the policeman was attached to the Zone 11 and that the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of the zone was Ibrahim’s boss.
The Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 11, Mr. Agboola Oshodi-Glover, when contacted on the telephone, said the case was under investigation.
He said, “The case is under investigation and we will get to the root of the matter to know where the policeman is. I don’t want to say more than that.”
– Punch Newspaper