The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has called on Inspector-General of Police Olatunji Disu to intervene urgently after police detained two minors in connection with the search for a Lagos businessman.
Chinedu Eyah, 16, and Kosisochukwu Onojo, 15, were allegedly arrested at the residence of Mr Timothy Chika Odoh. The boys had gone to Jibowu Park to waybill inverter batteries to a customer when officers linked to Area F, Ikeja, took them into custody.
According to RULAAC’s statement released on Saturday, an officer identified as Mr Lawal told Odoh that he was the person the police were looking for over a complaint. The two teenagers remained in detention despite this.
“If either child is reasonably suspected of personally committing an offence, the allegation should be disclosed and investigated with full observance of the safeguards applicable to children,” RULAAC stated. “If they are being detained merely because the police are looking for Chika, they should be released immediately.”
The group stressed that children, spouses, workers or relatives must not be used as substitutes or leverage to force another person to surrender to the police.
The detentions follow the reported arrest on 22 September of Odoh’s wife, Mrs Ogechi Juliet Chika, when officers visited the family home in her husband’s absence. She was released after the intervention of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police. Odoh alleges that his pregnant wife suffered a miscarriage the next day, which he attributes to the trauma of the arrest.
RULAAC said the incidents form part of a wider series of police actions involving Odoh, his workers, family and business through Zone 2 Command, the FCID Annex Alagbon and formations under the Lagos State Police Command.
At the centre of Odoh’s allegations is Mr Uche Ozoigwe, described as a security manager associated with ATC Telecommunications. Odoh claimed Ozoigwe had previously threatened to ensure his imprisonment and drive him out of the battery business. The claims remain under investigation.
The rights group questioned whether the continuing movement of complaints and police actions across different formations represented genuinely separate criminal complaints backed by independent evidence, or related allegations producing repeated arrests, searches and seizures that are disrupting Odoh’s family and business.
RULAAC asked the Inspector-General to consolidate all related files from Zone 2 Command, the FCID Annex Alagbon, the Lagos State Police Command/Area F and any other formation involved, and assign them to a single independent investigative team under Force Headquarters.
The organisation made clear it was not seeking to shield Odoh from legitimate investigation. It urged that if telecommunications equipment found in his possession was stolen, investigators should identify the items by serial numbers, match them against company asset registers and link them to specific reported incidents. Odoh should also account for the goods and produce evidence of lawful acquisition.
“Evidence should settle the matter not an endless succession of arrests,” the statement said.
RULAAC identified the immediate priority as the welfare and liberty of the two minors. It called on the Inspector-General to ascertain their whereabouts and legal status without delay and secure their release unless there is a lawful and individual evidential basis for proceeding against either child.
“Let all the related files come onto one table. Let the evidence establish the truth,” the group concluded.
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