For the families of Owodina Alarumaku these are not good times as they are currently facing very present peril.
In a petition written to the Inspector–General of Police made available to sharpedgenews.com, the family averred that on the 19th of October 2010,their hitherto peaceful community was invaded by marauders who wielded dangerous weapons like rifles, pistols axes, cutlasses, bottles, woods and charms.
They further averred that the rampaging marauders led by one Adeyiga Memudu Sanni in company of Saidi, Yekini, Isiaka, Rasaki, Sikiru, and others robbed the inhabitants of the community of cash, handsets and jewelleries whose value they put at several million of naira.
The assault on the community they alleged led to the death of one Kamorudeen Adele whose mutilated corpse was later recovered from a disused well by the men of the Nigeria Police at Imota. They claimed that though the case has been attended to by different Police Formations in the “D” Department, Alagbon, they are however not spared of further punishment from the Police they had hoped will ease their present predicament.
They claimed that they arrived at this summation because, as they speak, these hoodlums are still stationed in the community openly parading its street and intermittently firing warning shots into the air and threatening to kill anyone who dare question their actions a situation they said have led to some of the inhabitants fleeing the area.
They are pained that though the Police Authorities are aware of this development and that most of these gun wielding miscreants are the same persons who have jumped bail from the custody of Federal SARS, there seems to be no solution to their nightmare. They submit that in the light of the murder of one of their own, they now go about with fear and apprehension of grievous bodily harm and outright assassination.
They called on the IGP to cause the transfer of all their case files from the Police Formations currently handling them and in their place a team of crack detectives who are specialist in the handling of violent crimes be assigned in order to ensure that the culprits are brought to book.
In a twist of fate however, instead of the Police Authorities to accede to the prayers in the petition sent to the IGP, the authors of the said petition were swamped upon by the same Police and about eight of them were arrested and subsequently charged to court the following day on five count charge of(a) conduct likely to cause breach of peace, (b)attacking one Sikiru Ajakaye and Rasaki Ajakaye,(c) threatening to kill the said persons with cutlasses and other dangerous weapon and(d) going about with the said weapons in public without lawful occasion in a manner to cause terror to any person which are punishable under section 80 of the criminal code Cap 32 Vol. 11 Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2003.
Against the backdrop of these developments, the community had written another petition dated the 5th of November 2011 to the Area Commander, Area “N” Police Command averring Police complicity in the arrest of their innocent neighbors. They specifically alleged abuse of office, intimidation, harassment, murder, conspiracy to set up false allegation by one Corporal Lati of Team B of The Anti- Robbery Section of Area “N” Command Ijede whom they said led a team of Policemen and in tow were one Rasaki Ajakaye,Sikiru Ajakaye,Biodun Panji, Fatai and some other fellows not known to them and that they were shocked that the said men who were in company of the Corporal Lati team were armed with guns, cutlasses, bottles, and in the course of their unlawful visit they shot and killed one Kamorudeen Adele and that it is ironic for those who were unjustly invaded by street urchins and miscreants to be the ones now subjected to all manner of intimidation and humiliation by the Police while the resl perpetrators of the crime are parading the street of the community free men.
They call on the Lagos State Government and relevant security agencies to promptly investigate the activities of one Oba Akinolu of Agbowa Kingdom whom they allege is strongly in support of the suspects and supervises criminal activities in the area for pecuniary reasons
They however believe that the judiciary which is the beacon of hope of the poor, helpless and downtrodden, will unearth the truth