The family of a Lagos resident, Osas Azenabor, has expressed frustration over what it described as the persistent silence of the Lagos State Police Command regarding his whereabouts, 15 months after he was allegedly taken into custody.
The family said repeated attempts to obtain information from the police have yielded no result since his arrest in November 2024.
Speaking with PUNCH on Monday, the victim’s father, Francis Azenabor, said his son was apprehended on November 1, 2024, during a police operation around Mile 12 and was reportedly taken to Ketu Police Station.
According to him, an eyewitness at the scene advised Osas to contact his family, prompting him to call his wife before he was taken away.
Francis said when his daughter-in-law got to the station, officers on duty denied that her husband was in their custody and directed her to make enquiries at other stations, including Ogudu.
“She went to other stations, but there was no record of him anywhere. The following day, his mother and I visited Oshodi Police Station. They told us it was impossible for officers to arrest someone in Ketu and transfer him there. We searched several stations without success. We also went to Badagry Prison and Kirikiri, but we didn’t find him,” he said.
The distraught father added that the eyewitness who allowed Osas to use his phone later identified the officer who allegedly handled the arrest at Ketu Police Station.
“The man showed me the officer at a Baba Ijebu shop. When I approached him, he immediately became hostile and refused to speak with me because he recognised me as Osas’s father. I had earlier reported the matter to the Divisional Police Officer, but nothing came out of it,” Francis alleged.
He further stated that his efforts to escalate the matter within the police hierarchy had been unsuccessful, claiming that he was repeatedly redirected from one division to another without any clear answers.
Francis disclosed that at a point, the officers allegedly involved were briefly detained on the directive of a senior officer but were later released.
He said he had engaged legal counsel and visited multiple police formations and correctional centres in search of his son, all to no avail.
Lamenting the prolonged silence of the authorities, Francis appealed for intervention from higher police authorities, including the Inspector-General of Police.
“My son has been missing for 15 months after his arrest. I am pleading with the Inspector-General of Police and well-meaning Nigerians to help me uncover the truth. It has been almost two years since I last saw him. He has three children, and I don’t know how to explain his absence to them,” he said.
Efforts to get a response from the Police Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Abimbola Adebisi, were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
Calls placed to the state Commissioner of Police, Moshood Jimoh, were also not answered as of press time.