A love story which started in Nigeria between two lovers, leading to
marriage, has degenerated into divorce, power play, blackmail,
accusations and counter-accusations.
Caught in the middle of this
drama are the Metropolitan and Nigerian police. While the Metropolitan
police are presently looking at the merit of extraditing the man
identified as Bankole, their Nigerian counterparts are lining their
pockets.
It was learnt that the Nigerian policemen, who are
investigating the marital issue, have allegedly been extorting the
estranged couple, Bankole and his former wife, Eileen.
While the
policemen allegedly collected money from the woman to ensure that her
former lover was extradited from UK, the policemen turned to Bankole,
demanding money to stop his extradition.
The policemen, who are pulling these strings, are attached to the Police Interpol Section, Force Headquarters, Abuja.
The
Force Public Relations Officer (FPPRO), a Deputy Commissioner of Police
(DCP), Frank Mba, while expressing anger over the policemen
shenanigans, said that he had received complaint from Bankole on the
issue and vowed to fish out the policemen.
Mba, while elaborating
on supposed extradition documents sent to UK Police, said: “If there is
a serious crime, the security of a country will have to collaborate
with the other country in the operation process, that is, after the two
countries have investigated and come to agreement. Extradition does not
involve case of husband and wife, except it has to do with murder,
fraud. Whatever is the crime must be investigated by both countries and
come to an agreement.”
This is not the first time some Nigerian
policemen have been dragged into the drama between Bankole and his
wife. The drama with different policemen started almost three years
ago, where they illegally arrested Bankole’s former lover, Mercy, who
had a daughter for him.
Mercy resides in Ondo State, but
policemen from Alagbo, Lagos State, broke all protocols including
jurisdiction laws, failed to follow procedure and went to arrest Mercy.
The
matter between Bankole and Eileen has been taken to different courts,
at different occasions, and at each occasion, it has been struck off as
lacking merit. One of the accusations earlier levelled against Mercy was
impersonation.
Mercy was locked up in police cell at Alagbon for
days until she fell sick and desperately needed medical attention. The
policemen, who were alleged to be acting on instructions of Bankole’s
former wife, refused to grant Mercy bail, even though she didn’t know
her offence.
She was eventually bailed after a concerned police
officer, worried by her depreciating health, secretly gave her a phone
to contact a journalist.
In another power play, Bankole’s former
wife reported him to Metropolitan Police that he carried out genital
mutilation on his Nigerian-born daughter, whom he had with Mercy.
Mercy
has since remarried and has other children. The matter was also looked
into. The latest drama right now is the extradition.
According to
suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1415/18 at the Federal High Court in the Abuja
Division, between Bankole Oni Ogunnowo and the Attorney-General of the
Federation and Inspector-General of Police, “The nominal complainant is
the estranged wife of the plaintiff in this present suit. She is a
Briton of Nigerian extraction, who was born and raised in the United
Kingdom and only comes to Nigeria for visits, while the plaintiff is a
Nigerian and has lived in the United Kingdom since 2012.
“The
plaintiff and the complainant, Mrs. Eileen Adetokumbo Ogunowo, got
married at the Ikeja Marriage Registry, Lagos on the 18th day of
February, 2012. Subsequently, the plaintiff at the invitation of the
complainant, moved over to join her in the United Kingdom. The couple
was living in peace and the plaintiff eventually started working.
Trouble, however, started when the complainant and her mother, who also
is in the United Kingdom, requested that the plaintiff’s employer pay
his salary into the complainant’s mother’s account and that they in turn
will pay him a commission since they were the ones housing him.
The
suit further stated: “This was a request the Plaintiff did not agree
to. This led to serious and constant matrimonial difference between the
plaintiff on the one hand and the complainant and her mother on the
other hand for one year and four months that the couple stayed together.
The plaintiff was eventually removed from the complainant’s apartment
by the United Kingdom authorities for his own safety due to the constant
harassment and domestic violence meted out to him by the complainant.
He has been on a protective watch list by the United Kingdom Police
against any attempted violence on by the complainant.”
Although
Eileen and Bankole have a child together, they apparently didn’t have a
smooth divorce and some ghosts have refused to remain buried.
Bankole, however, has moved on; he has remarried and had children with another woman in the UK.
He
is, however, not having a settled marriage as some Nigerian policemen
keep sending myriad of documents filled with one allegation after
another. The present document facing him now is that of extradition over
alleged marriage fraud.
Some lawyers and policemen, while
speaking on when to invoke extradition on a citizen, said that it must
be a serious case like murder, fraud, forgery and others, not marriage
dispute. The police and the lawyers stated these while reacting to the
attempts by policemen to extradite Bankole.
An Assistant
Inspector-General of police (AIG), Force Criminal Investigation
Department (FCID) Alagbon-Ikoyi in Lagos, Mr. Murtala Mani, said that
whatever that could warrant extradition of a person must be a serious
crime.
Mani said that in Nigeria, the bilateral relationship with
some countries of the world determined how possible to carry out an
extradition of her citizens, through the embassies in those countries.
He
said: “If there is any crime that warrants extradition, the embassy
looks into it with the host country and by agreement, workout the
extradition operation. The embassy will be involved, that is one of
their duties. It depends on the crime, before the Nigeria government can
seek extradition of person such as murder, forgery, fraud. It is
sometimes difficult to extradite a person from another country depending
on the agreement of both countries.
“However, the Nigerian
government or security agencies cannot extradite anyone on personal
matters or family case. Your crime must be against the country of
resident and your home country.”
A Lagos-based constitutional
lawyer, Mr Spurgeon Ataen, said: “Murder, manslaughter, attempted
murder, drug offences, trafficking in humans are extraditable offences
because they are crimes in both countries, that is to say the country
seeking extradition and the country the offender escaped to after
committing the offence. Nigeria has extradition treaty with several
countries of the world. Therefore, it is only with those countries she
can either extradite or seek extradition. This may be a way to check the
rampancy of such crimes or stop recidivism in respect of such crime.
However, my opinion is that all indictable offences should be
extraditable except crimes orchestrated by the state for purposes of
witch-hunting and silencing legitimate opposition.”
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