The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has arrested and detained Lanre Shotunde, a businessman based in Abeokuta, Ogun State, as a placeholder for Olamide Abiodun Thomas, his Facebook friend whom the police are after.
On Thursday, FIJ heard the policemen were deployed to go after Thomas on the orders of Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
A source, who did not want to be named, told FIJ that Shotunde called on Wednesday to raise the alarm that the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the police had arrested and detained him at Sango Police Station.
According to the source, the police initially arrested Shotunde’s mother, but when he went to the station to find out why, the police released his mother and detained him.
“They kept him in detention at Sango Police Station pending when he can produce her (Thomas),” said the source.
The source also mentioned that the police are likely targeting Thomas because of her previous posts condemning the police and the government.
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Lanre Shuaibu Shotunde
Thomas is a member of the Take It Back (TIB) movement, a human rights group, and one of the protesters arrested at the fourth remembrance of the EndSARS Lekki Toll Gate massacre in October.
She told FIJ on Thursday that the police are after her for two reasons: her participation in the EndSARS memorial struggle as well as a recently resurfaced video clip of Tunji Akinosi, a politician, assaulting her for trying to hold him accountable for hitting a hawker with his car on May 1, 2023.
Akinosi is the House of Representatives member representing Ado Odo/Ota Federal Constituency. Thomas said her actions were met with hostility as Akinosi’s aides threatened her when the incident made it to the news and she reported the assault to the Ogun Police Command.
“The police did not let the case see the light of day,” she said.
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She also told FIJ that some policemen had been calling her over the past few weeks after the video of Akinosi’s assault resurfaced. One of them asked her to report to the police station in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, because a petition had been written against her.
However, the policeman did not disclose details of the petition. Thomas said she later learnt that he was an IRT officer.
In a voice recording obtained by FIJ, the officer could be heard telling her: “If Ogbomoso is not convenient for you, you will tell me where you are.”
Following the intimidating calls from police officers, Thomas raised the alarm via a statement sighted by FIJ. In the statement, she claimed that Adejobi Olumuyiwa, the NPF spokesperson, had been sending people after her.
Thomas stated that these people were threatening her.
“He has also been working in connivance with the House of Representatives member who assaulted me last year on Workers Day! And now that the case has resurfaced, Muyiwa (Adejobi) has been setting people after me including police officers to threaten me!” the statement partly reads.
Olamide Abiodun Thomas.
Thomas told FIJ that she had not received any formal invitation letter from the police.
Hours before FIJ spoke with her on Thursday, she made a Facebook post condemning the unlawful arrest of Shotunde, whom she noted was “a friend from afar”. She also said she had blocked him weeks before his arrest because “he made a joke about a sensitive issue” she had posted.
In the video, she mentioned that the IRT policemen were deployed to go after her on the orders of Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
FIJ called the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) at Sango, but he neither answered nor responded to messages.
Omolola Odutola, the police spokesperson in Ogun, informed FIJ over the phone that she was unaware of Shotunde’s arrest.
Muyiwa Adejobi, the NPF’s public relations officer, could not be reached for comments as he did not answer his call or respond to FIJ’s message.
The post To Get Human Rights Advocate Wanted by IGP, Police Detain Her Facebook Friend appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.