Ebere Francis/
Resolving a marriage dispute, brought before the police, appears to have turned to a lucrative business as officers are accused of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.
The love story which began in Nigeria between two lovers, led to marriage, degenerated into divorce, power play, blackmail, accusations and counter-accusations as it became a love triangle and means of exploitation by the police, says Mr Bankole Oni Ogunnowo who is at the centre of the crisis.
Ogunnowo’s ex-wife, Eileen has involved the Metropolitan Police in the United Kingdom and officers in Nigeria in a bid to repatriate him and make him pay for breaking her heart and hooking up with another woman.
NewsmakersNG learnt that while the Metropolitan police are looking at the merit of extraditing Ogunnowo, their Nigerian counterparts have been accused of unprofessional conducts.
The officers were accused of receiving money from both ends to alternate their support between the estranged lovers.
While the unnamed policemen at the Interpol Section in Abuja allegedly collected money from the woman to ensure that her former lover was extradited from the UK, they demanded money from Ogunnowo to stop his extradition.
The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), DCP Frank Mba, expressed dismay at the unprofessional conduct. He said that he had received a complaint from Ogunnowo on the issue and vowed to fish out those who are involved.
Commenting on the supposed extradition documents sent to UK Police, Mba 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 an agreement. Extradition does not involve the case of husband and wife, except it has to do with murder, fraud. Whatever is the crime must be investigated by both countries, then they will come to an agreement.”
This is not the first time some Nigerian policemen have been dragged into the drama between Ogunnowo and his wife. It started almost three years ago when policemen allegedly illegally arrested one Mercy, who had a daughter for Ogunnowo.
Mercy resides in Ondo State, but policemen from Alagbon, in Lagos, went there to arrest her.
The matter between Ogunnowo and Eileen has been taken to different courts. Each time, it has been struck out for lack of merit. One of the accusations earlier levelled against Mercy was that of impersonation.
Mercy was locked up in the police cell at Alagbon for days until she fell sick and desperately needed medical attention. The policemen, who were allegedly acting on instructions of Ogunnowo’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 mobile phone to contact a journalist.
In another power play, Ogunnowo’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 is the ongoing extradition efforts.
Here are details of a suit marked 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 on visits, while the plaintiff is a Nigerian and has lived in the United Kingdom since 2012.
“The plaintiff and the complainant, Mrs Eileen Adetokumbo Ogunnowo, got married at the Ikeja Marriage Registry, Lagos on the 18th day of February 2012. Subsequently, the plaintiff on 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, would 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 a 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 by the complainant.”
Although Eileen and Ogunnowo have a child together, their relationship has remained topsy-turvy.
Ogunnowo has moved on, remarried and have children from another woman in the UK.
He is, however, not having a settled marriage as some Nigerian policemen kept on engaging him, sending all manners of documents, as they push for his 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 Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Force Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Department (FCIID) Alagbon, in Lagos, Mr Murtala Mani, said that whatever would warrant extradition of a person must be a serious crime.
Mani said that in Nigeria, the bilateral relationship with some countries of the world determines how possible to carry out the 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, work out 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 a 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 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 an 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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