Lagos State Task Force Chairman, Jejeloye Shola, a Chief Superintendent of Police is reportedly being questioned on the order of the Inspector General of Police, following the killing in Lagos, penultimate week, of a police Sergeant identified as Edison Fulman, with Force Number 500314 who was shot dead in the line of duty.
The ill fated Sergeant, was in company of sixteen other policemen attached to Zone 2 Command. Reliable sources said the team was actually detailed to provide security at Etegbin Village (Olubode Egbin) in Ojo Local Government area of Lagos for a family that had taken possession of lands following a court judgement in their favour.
It was in the course of providing security at Etegbin that they were reportedly ambushed by a group of matchet wielding hoodlums and some police officers numbering about 50 who inflicted them with injuries. One of the invading gang was said to have fired a bullet from a gun which reportedly hit the police Sergeant on the 14th of February, 2022.
An invitation letter was said to have been served on the Jejeloye, which he honoured on Friday in Abuja and the invitation was also reportedly extended to some politicians in Alausa, Lagos seat of power, who are suspected to be complicit in the matter. The politicians, however, reportedly sent in a lawyer to represent them.
Meanwhile, the heat generated by the shooting and killing of the police Sergeant led to indepth investigations by a carefully selected homicide detectives drawn from the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to probe the remote cause of the blood-letting that led to the police officer’s death.
It later emerged that the hoodlums were mobilized by land grabbers who had lied to some government officials at Alausa that thugs were fomenting trouble at their community which apparently called for the mobilisation of the armed Task Force officials to the location.
The hoodlums were also said to have used the ensuing confusion to kidnap thirteen others whose whereabouts are still shrouded in mystery.
Meanwhile, the homicide officers from the FCID, Abuja, in the course of their investigations, made a handful of arrests. It was in the course of finding out what really transpired that the CSP Jejeloye became an interesting party as he was said to have led a detachment of his officers with some government functionaries to the land the day of the mayhem.
.
Efforts to hear from him were not successful as his known mobile number was switched off at press time. However, a source in his office who pleaded not to be named because he was not authorized to speak, said CSP Jejeloye had been summoned to Abuja “this morning by the office of the IGP over the Etegbin matter”.
Chief Moruf Owonla, an interested party in the Adeoku family property, during our investigation, said that 13 of his workers were abducted by the hoodlums and ferried away through the sea. The alleged abducted persons were named as Ganiyu Ogunbakinde, Olumide Omoakin, Jamiu Osama, Azeez Oloye, Akeem, Taiwo, Dayo and Wasiu. He added that others who escaped abduction were rescued by policemen attached to the Ajangbadi Division.
There had been a lingering tussle between the Adeoku family and another family over the legal ownership of hectares of land in the Etegbin community. The matter was adjudicated upon by Justice O. Oshodi of the Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, who, after listening to the two parties delivered judgment in favour of the Adeoku Family.
-Owolola Adebola
