Kunle Adelabu
– Some people are after us – suspects cry out
The Police authority in the country has been charged to launch an investigation into the allegations by the Zone 2 Command HQ Onikan Lagos, that two land agents – Mr Mukaila Salau, popularly known and called, ‘Actor’, and Mr Babatunde Sotile, also called ‘Georghie’, are cult leaders that have been terrorizing Ikorodu.
The request was coming from no other people than the two suspects (Mr Mukaila Salau and Mr Babatunde Sotile) who were allegedly paraded by the police with gun and bullets on the ground that they are chieftains of cult group.
The suspects alongside their lawyer in separate interviews with THE IMPACT, charged police authority to carry out an investigation into their matter which is being handled by the Zone 2 annex at Ladegboye in Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State, Southwest, Nigeria.
Barr. Olakunle Odesanya, lawyer to the suspects, also stated that aside the charge on the police authority to open an investigation, his clients would seek redress in court for the breach of their fundamental human rights as enshrined in the Nigeria Constitution.
The Zonal Police Public Relations Officer, Zone 2 Command HQ Onikan Lagos, DSP Hauwa Idris-Adamu, had on May 4, 2020, in a release with No. CZ:5300/ZN.2/PPRO/VOL.4/35, titled, ‘Arrest of suspected cult leader terrorizing Ikorodu’, described one Mukaila ‘m’, a.k.a. Actor, as a suspected cult leader terrorizing Maya, Itele, Igode and Adamo areas of Ikorodu, Lagos.
But in a rather turn of event, it was the pictures of the alleged suspect, Mukaila Salau, a.k.a ‘actor’, and another individual, Babatunde Sotile, a.k.a ‘Georgjie’, that were attached to the release.
According to the Zone 2 PPRO, the rise of cult activities around Ikorodu in recent time caught the attention of the Assistant Inspector General of Police incharge of Zone 2, AIG Ahmed IIyasu, who ordered some tactical units of the Zone to gather intelligence and information that could lead to apprehension of the cult leaders and members terrorizing members of the public.
In view of the above, DSP Idris Adamu stated in the release that:
“Hence, information on one Mukaila ‘m’, a.k.a. Actor, a suspected cult leader terrorizing Maya, Itele, Igode and Adamo areas of Ikorodu, Lagos.
She added in the release that:
“A team of operatives attached to Zonal Monitoring Unit stormed the house and hideout of the said Mukaila; where the following items were recovered: One (1) Pump Action Gun, Fifty-Five (55) live Cartridges, One (1) locally made Axe, and assorted Charms were recovered while one of his boys was arrested.
It was added that investigation is in progress and actions being expedited to arrest fleeing suspects and that suspects will be charged to court upon completion of investigation.
Barr Olakunle Odesanya, Senior partner, Odesanya & Odesanya Chamber and lawyer to Mr Mukaila Salau (Actor) and Mr Babatunde Sotinle (Georgie), speaking with THE IMPACT in his office in Ikorodu, described the police action as a frame –up while adding that his clients have been molested and dehumanised.
“It is not new that some unscrupulous elements in the Nigeria Police Force would just frame up people. In the case of my clients, Mukaila Salau and Babatunde Sotile, they are in no way party to the allegations for which they have been derogated, molested and dehumanized”, he alleged.
Speaking on the travails of his clients, Barr. Odesanya stated:
“What happened was that sometime last year between May and June, Police from Zone 2 raided Mukaila’s house situated at Adamo. It must be noted that he doesn’t live in the house, and some guys were apprehended in possession of gun according to the police statement.
“These guys were not paraded by the police like they falsely paraded my clients. Last year, the two of them who were said to have been allegedly caught with gun were granted administrative bail.
“Babatunde, a friend to Mukaila, was the one who stood surety for the two suspects and I don’t know what later transpired among the police officers.
“Some members of the team that arrested those guys were transferred elsewhere and it seems the head of the new team felt the investigation was not thoroughly carried out and there is more to the matter, hence he now decided to re-investigate the matter.
“If your investigation now revealed that what happened the other time was more than what they reported. Have you (head of the new team) bothered to call on the team that carried out the investigation in the first place?
“How come that Mukaila and Babatunde will now be used to replace the real culprits to the extent of parading them with gun which is an act of molestation”, Barr. Odesanya stated.
“What are the facts upon which my clients are being tagged cultists? They should be able to tell us if there was any investigation that revealed that.
“In the case of Evans the kidnapper, the case was glaring to everyone because his confessional statement was made public. That is the position of the law if you check Section 9 (3) of the Criminal Administration of Justice, Lagos State, 2015.
“It is boldly written that when an accused is making a confessional statement, it is either you video him or in the absence of that, his legal practitioner of his choice must be there. Was that done before they labelled them? No!”, Barr. Odesanya answered.
He told THE IMPACT that a petition has been forwarded to the Deputy Inspector of Police (DIG) and Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) to open an investigation into the allegations by the police that his clients are cult leaders.
“We have written our petition to the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) urging them to call for the file and open a fresh investigation into the matter and see if these men are cultists. These are gentlemen who have legit businesses.
“If they investigate thoroughly, I know that 20% of Ikorodu indigenes will tell them that they, (Babatunde Sotile, a.k.a. ‘Georghie’, and Mukaila, a.k.a ‘Actor’) are law abiding. How can you forced them to carry gun and be photographed?
He described the police action, regarding the alleged parading of his clients with gun and bullets and their denial of legal representation, as barbaric.
“The police action is barbaric but not new. That is what we are saying about the Criminal Justice System in Nigeria.
“These guys, knowing fully well that suspects should be presumed innocent at this present time, were not allowed to reach their lawyer or contact their families. It wasn’t as if they were even arrested, they were invited.
“Being in possession of gun is not a child’s play. It is either we have conducted our investigation and arraignment before a court but in this case, they were granted bail and later the police embarked on show of shame by parading them with gun and bullets. Even a layman will know it was an arrangement”, Barr. Odesanya alleged.
“It was a derogation of section 34 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. They have dehumanized them. These are gentlemen. They are fathers”.
He also hinted that he would be seeking redress for defamation of character in the law court for his clients.
“Very well, we are going to be seeking justice. As said earlier, we have written our petitions to the appropriate quarters that they should investigate the matter to find out if at all these guys are party to it, let alone being cultists after which we will now seek redress in the civil court for defamation of character”, the lawyer said.
Suspects’ (Mukaila, Babatunde) Accounts
Mukaila Salau, 45, land agent from Kwara State, speaking with THE IMPACT, said he was surprised by the police action parading him as a cult leader
“I was surprised when I saw the picture on the internet.
“It is very baffling that they also wrote that I have been terrorizing residents during the curfew. I challenge them to investigate this allegation. I bought so many bags of rice which l distributed to people at the same Adamo that they are alleging that I terrorized”.
Like his lawyer, Mukaila called on the police authority to investigate the matter while also calling on the general public to intervene in the matter, expressing fears that he might be assassinated for what he knows nothing about.
“My appeal to the general public is that they should assist me because they might use these guys that are terrorizing Ikorodu to assassinate me on the ground that I belong to a cult group. I am not involved in any cult group”, Mukaila stated.
Narrating the genesis of his engagement with the Ladegboye policemen, Muakaila said that he received a call around May 2019 from police at Zone 2 annex that two of his tenants have been arrested with gun.
According to him, the police officers insisted that he must report at the station since he is their landlord, but he sent one Babatnde Sotile (the other suspect) to appear for him since he was away from the state.
“I later called one Mr Georghie (Babatunde Sotile) who is my business partner, to appear at the Ladegboye police station for me since police insisted that I must appear and I was far away from Lagos.
“At the station, Mr Georghie called me and narrated same report and I reinstated my position to the police that they should charge them to court.
“Three months later, I was told that policemen from the same station came to same house and arrested all my tenants on the ground that they traced ‘Yahoo’ boys to the house.
“My tenants later told me after their release that police told them that they were actually investigating me but that they told them my business.
“Thereafter, I sent all the tenants packing because I cannot continue to have police on my trail because of them. The house is still unoccupied till this moment”.
On his present ordeal with the police, he stated that the police officer stormed his house around 2.00am on Friday, May 1, 2020, with Babatunde to arrest him while the three cars found in his premises were equally confiscated.
“On that fateful Friday, I received a call from Georghie around 2am telling me that he was at my gate with policemen. One of the officers later collected the phone from him and spoke with me and I came out to meet them.
“On getting into my compound, they enquired who the owners of the cars in my compound are and I told them that they are mine. At that point, they stated that they were arresting me but I refused on the ground that they did not tell me why I was being arrested and why they were effecting the arrest at such odd hours.
“I was not even sure if they were police officers” he said.
“It was at that point that one of them, Williams, told me that he was the one that called me sometime ago about my tenants that were arrested.
“They asked me to give them my car keys but my wife kicked against it but I pleaded with her to allow them take them because it was early in the morning and they were armed.
“When we got to the station, I was asked to write a statement and when I asked what my charge(s) are, I was told that it was about my tenants that were arrested about ten months ago.
“They told me that they wanted to investigate my relationship to those boys that were caught with gun and I obliged them.
“I was told that all my tenants wrote statements after their arrest but when I requested to see their statements, they refused.
“I challenged them at the station to re-arrest those two guys for re-investigation and that I am ready to face them, but they threatened to shoot me if I prove difficult”, he alleged.
“Why are they arresting me now ten months after the incident for what they ought to have charged those guys earlier”, he queried.
“This is the only means that I can let Nigerians hear my side of the matter and I challenge any cult member in Ikorodu to come out and confirm if I belong to any cult group”.
Mukaila, who was a foundation member of the Onyabo Vigilance group, stated that he was never investigated for cultism as alleged in the release by the Zone 2 and also emphasised that he would make himself available for investigation into the matter to clear his name.
“As a member of Onyabo Vigilance group, we have assisted police in arresting many cult members and robbers, it may be some of them that are behind my travail because it was not what I was investigated for that police wrote in their release”, he stated.
“I call on the Inspector – General of Police to reopen investigation into the matter before anything happens to me”.
While alleging that he and Babatunde were forced to take photograph with the gun and bullets which they knew nothing about after the police had threatened to shoot them, narrated his experience at the Zone 2 annex, Ladegboye.
“ln the early hours of the following morning, they brought us out and asked us to pose with gun and bullets that they said were recovered from those boys about ten months ago which I refused but had to comply when they started shooting and threatening that they will shoot me in the leg”, he said.
“While all these were going on, I asked them for the whereabout of these two guys that were arrested in my house with gun but they did not respond and only told me that they were after my own investigation.
“I was denied access to my phone to call my lawyer, families and wife and at a point, they told me that my wife had come around.
“I was locked up in the same cell with hardened criminals like kidnappers, murderers and there was even one that had chain in his legs. I had no choice when people came for my release because I cannot bear to stay there any longer.
He alleged that one of the officers, Williams, told him that his travail was due to the fact he did not cooperate with them when they arrested two of his tenants with gun last year.
He alleged that the police demanded for N5million before he could be released but that he eventually paid N700, 000 and additional N100, 000 for the release of his cars.
“One of the officers, Williams, later told me that I did not relate well with them when they arrested those guys and that l only told them that they should charge them to court which did not go down well with them.
“Police officers at Ladegboye later told one of my friends that came for me, that I should give them N5million.
“But I specifically told them that I cannot afford such amount and my friend told me that he would make contact with one of the police bosses in Lagos. After sometime, I was brought out to the counter and they informed me that my friends had made contact with their Lagos office and they were on their way back.
“At a point, they were pleading with me that they were sorry for the arrest and that they were only doing their job and assured me that they were going to release me as soon as my friends come around.
“We were later asked to pay N700, 000 for bail which I kicked against but my friends prevailed on me to let go. More so, I was not comfortable with where I was put. I was put in a cell with hardened criminals and the place was dark.
“We paid the N700, 000 and they insisted on detaining my vehicles that were removed from my house when I was arrested. I had to pay additional N100, 000 for the release of those cars”.
The day after his release, the suspect said that he started receiving calls that his picture and that of Babatunde posing with gun, has been released on the social media with the allegation that they are cult leaders.
“Unfortunately, people started calling me the next day after my release that my picture with Mr Georghie posing with gun and bullets were being circulated on the social media with the allegation that I am the head of cult group in Ikorodu”, he said.
“When I called them (police officers at Ladegboye) to protest the use of my picture with gun on social media, they denied publishing the picture and they promised to find out who posted the picture. But l cannot wait for them to do that,I have to seek redress before they do anything worst”.
The land agent, who is asking the police authority to carry out investigation to get to the root of the matter, also stated that he would be seeking redress in court.
“I am going to seek redress in court to clear my name from all these allegations that I knew nothing about. I want the Inspector-General of Police to also open an investigation to get to the root of the matter as well” he said.
“The Police claimed that they are not the one that circulated my picture and that of my business partner with gun but they were the ones that gave it to those that have been using it on the social media, television and radio”.
Mukaila stated that the Ladegboye Police station that is handling his case is being headed by one Alhaji Lati and also went further to mention some of the officers that were involved in his arrest.
“The team at Ladegboye is headed by one Alhaji Lati. It was while they were taking my statement that I saw him and he told me that they were re-investigating the matter and apologized for any embarrassment.
“Others were Williams, Yinka and Idris. Those are the ones that I can recall among them. It was Idris and Yinka that called when two of my tenants were arrested “.
Also speaking with THE IMPACT, the second suspect, Babatunde Sotile, who is an indigene of Ikorodu and land agent, also denied the police allegations against him and Mukaila.
He corroborated Mukaila’s statement that he visited Ladegboye police station last year on his behalf when two of his tenants were arrested.
“Mukaila Salau is my very good person and business partner. I always look for those interested in buying lands from him and get my commission.
“The allegation that we are cult leaders is not true”, he said.
He said that since that time, he did not hear anything from the police until when the police came to arrest him early morning of Friday, May 1.
“Since then, we did no hear anything from the police until Friday, May 1, when I saw about four torchlights being pointed at me through the window while sleeping around 1.30am.
“I quickly got out of bed to enquired who they were and one of them turned his back and I was able to see ‘Ladegboye’ written on the back of his shirt when l looked through the window.
“I know one of them, Yinka, who said that I should come out and l quickly take my Ankara attire and wore it and then joined them outside.
“While l was with them, Williams joined and asked me if I know him and I answered in affirmation and I was asked to enter their car where I was handcuffed.
“My wife was given the phone number to contact them and she was also told that they were from Ladegboye.
“When we got to Adamo, they drove towards Iponyewa and we arrived at Mukaila’s house gate and they gave me my small Nokia phone and ordered me to call him.
“Mukaila thought I was calling him for early solat and morning meal for the Muslim fasting because I normally does that but I told him that I wasn’t but that l was at his gate with policemen. One of the policemen later got the phone from me and asked him to come out.
“At that point, I was asked to return to the vehicle and I saw a guy sitting in the car who was the one that brought those policemen to my house and l heard him telling them that he had sighted Mukaila coming out because they could not get into his house due to the electric wire he used to secured it.
“He (Mukaila) was also arrested when he came out and they put him in another car and he did not see me.
“I also saw those police officers driving three of his cars out of his compound”, Babatunde said.
Speaking on his interrogation at the police station, Babatunde said:
“Our statement was taken at the police station separately and in my own statement, I wrote that I did know why I was arrested but I added that I deserved to be invited and not embarrassed if it was because of my appearance for Mukaila at their station when two of his tenants were arrested.
“I also told them that Mukaila engages in buying and selling of lands and that it is also my own line of business when they asked me how I knew him.
“I was kept in an open cell at Ladegboye where if it rains, we will be drenched while Mukaila was locked up inside the German cell”, he said.
Narrating how they were allegedly forced to pose with gun and bullets by four police officers, Babatunde stated:
“We were handcuffed together while they were parading us with the gun and we were unable to think straight because we did not know what they were capable of doing”, he stated while explaining the reason they complied with police officers’ order at Ladegboye to be photographed with guns and bullets.
“Police officers that paraded us with guns and bullets at Ladegboye were Yinka, Samuel, an Hausa officer and a lady”, he said.
He denied membership of any cult group and pleaded with the police authority and general public to look into the matter.
“I knew nothing about the allegation that we are cultists and also that we are terrorizing residents of Adamo. I do not belong to either Eiye or Aiye cult group and residents of my area can attest to that”, he said.
“I am appealing to the police authority and the general public to intervene in our matter. I only assisted a friend to appear at the Ladegboye station when police insisted that he must appear and he was not in town.
“I am also ready to face the two suspects that were former tenants at Mukaila’s house in an open investigation to clear my name.
“All my family members have been calling me regarding my photograph that is being circulated around with gun because they all know that I am an easy going person.
When contacted, Chief Lanre Olabinjo, the Deputy Commander of the Ikorodu Security formation, Onyabo, confirmed that the suspect, Mukaila, is a foundation member of the security group and helped in fighting against cultism and other criminalities in Ikorodu Division.
Olabinjo, who stated that his command knows cult kingpins in Maya, Itele, Igode and Adamo areas of Ikorodu, Lagos, also said that the suspect has never been involved in cult activities.
