Mr. Ibukun Daniel, pastor of a Pentecostal church in Ikotun area of Lagos, was at home, enjoying the serenity of his family life on August 16, 2012, when a team of policemen barged in on his compound and arrested him, in the presence of his wife and children. According to him, he was led like a criminal to the Ikotun Police Division, where he was told that his next door neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Teniennor Abaka, said he was an informant for robbers.
Daniel was told that the couple alleged that a robbery that took place in the early hours of that day was orchestrated by him.
“I had never seen something like that in my whole life. I had no idea one could simply be labelled an armed robber and arrested without any single evidence,” the pastor told Kunle Falayi Of Punchng
He said, “I knew there was a robbery at their house; I knew that the robbers snatched their jeep and everybody sympathised with them.
“They said I knew about the robbery because the robbers parked in front of my house in Ikotun before Abaka was attacked. I was shocked.”
After a day in police cell, Daniel and one of his neighbours, who was also arrested, were taken home for a search on their apartments after which the police were said to have found nothing and they were released on bail.
Shortly after the police released Daniel and his neighbour, he said the couple reported the matter at the SARS office because they were not satisfied with the investigation of the police at Ikotun.
Daniel said, “It was like they just wanted to cause trouble for my family and get me imprisoned for a reason I did not understand. We realised that they had contacted a highly placed police officer then, who ordered the Ikotun Divisional Police Officer to transfer the case to SARS.
“After being detained till the following day at SARS, with a threat from Mrs. Abaka that we would rot in jail, we were released the following day. Few days later, we saw the Abakas driving the same jeep that was supposedly taken away by the robbers.
“Before that time, the Abakas were fond of threatening anybody they had problem with on the street with the police. They always showed that they knew somebody in the police force who could lock anybody up.”
Because he considered the case as a gross violation of his fundamental human rights, Daniel contacted his lawyer who filed a complaint at the Zone 2 Police Command, where the case was investigated and the then Assistant Inspector-General of Police made a report that the case be charged to court. But the case has remained dormant since then.