By Evelyn Usman
For 92-year-old Festus Arhagba, life has grow to be an countless nightmare of grief and remorse after his 50-year-old son, Kingsley, reportedly died in police custody on the Ajeromi Division, Lagos, below what he described as a chilling mixture of “deception, cruelty and extortion.”
Sitting in his modest Lagos house, leaning closely on a walker, the frail nonagenarian battling paralysis recounted to Saturday Vanguard how the household’s torment started on June 26, 2025, when policemen later recognized as operatives of the IGP Intelligence Response Crew, Abuja, arrested his youthful son, Kenneth.
In a quivering voice, he mentioned: “I remorse coming again to this nation. I used to be employed immediately from overseas to return right here. Since I got here to this nation, I’ve by no means had the sort of expertise. My 50-year-old son, Kingsley, was the one caring for me. Now I don’t know what to do.
“He had gone to drop his youngsters at college when the policemen, 5 in quantity, handcuffed him within the presence of my grandchildren and whisked him away. For 4 agonizing days, we didn’t know the place Kenneth was. Then I obtained a name from a policeman who recognized himself as ASP Danjuma, telling us to carry meals for Kenneth at Ajeromi Police Station.”
However the household’s hope quickly was horror, as Kingsley was reportedly detained on arrival. Later, in line with the nonagenarian, a household contact was informed to carry somebody on ‘stage 12’ for Kenneth’s bail.
He mentioned: “I informed them I didn’t have anybody at that stage, however I may carry my home paperwork. They agreed. I gave the paperwork to a Deacon who took them to the station. By the point he received there, he discovered that my elder son had collapsed. On the hospital the place he was taken, medical doctors mentioned Kingsley had died earlier than he was introduced in, and the policemen vanished, claiming they went to ‘pump their tyre.’”
Root trigger
The tragedy’s roots hint again to a bitter dispute over a storey constructing on Salami Road, Tolu Highway, within the Ajeromi Ifelodun space. Kenneth, the youthful son earlier arrested, defined that years in the past he had helped his ex-girlfriend, Mary James, facilitate the property buy.
“Mary used my late elder brother’s title as the customer on the ‘Contract of Sale,’” he revealed, including that title paperwork have been by no means produced. The matter was mentioned to have been reported on the Drive Prison Investigation Division, FCID, Alagbon, when the paperwork failed to look, resulting in the arrest of the vendor, recognized merely as Prince, who reportedly informed detectives that the papers have been with the EFCC and promised to refund the cash to Mary.
However, Kenneth mentioned, “the matter took a brand new twist, when Mary bypassed the police and settled immediately with Prince. She shared a video displaying them getting ready a contemporary deed”.
Forfeiture
Additional findings revealed that 4 months in the past, the Federal Excessive Court docket in Lagos ordered the ultimate forfeiture of the constructing to the Federal Authorities after the EFCC linked it to N89 million siphoned from Sterling Financial institution throughout a system glitch. A mark that learn “ EFCC, preserve off” was boldly seen in entrance of the constructing when Saturday Vanguard visited.
However some individuals mentioned to be posing as homeowners of the constructing have been accused of forging paperwork, together with the Oluwa household receipt and Deed of Task, allegedly used to acquire N69 million from a complainant, Anthony Nlebedim, and his son, Ikechukwu Sylvester Nlebedim, regardless of being conscious that the property in query was below dispute.
Incommunicado
Kenneth expressed shock that when arrested, he found in Abuja that the petition in opposition to him was for kidnap, conspiracy and menace to life.
He recalled in ache: “I used to be handcuffed and thrown into the cell at Ajeromi Division on Thursday, taken to the Marine Police on Friday, the place I spent two nights earlier than I used to be taken to Abuja on Sunday evening of June 29,2025.
All via my detention, I didn’t eat. I used to be disadvantaged of calling anybody for 4 days. One of many policemen informed me that he had strict directions to forestall me from talking to anybody and even when I died in detention, nothing would occur. I used to be launched due to my elder brother’s dying.”
Name for Justice
Now, the Arhagba household has petitioned the Inspector Common of Police, calling for justice and prosecution of these behind Kingsley’s dying.
“The police have killed one in every of my youngsters,” Festus sobbed, sinking again into his chair as his spouse, silently pacing the room, wiped away her personal tears.
In the meantime, police sources claimed Kingsley collapsed within the presence of his kinfolk and was not tortured. However for the Arhagba household, that rationalization did little to heal the gaping wound left by a dying they see as useless, merciless, and emblematic of a system the place “justice remains to be too typically silenced”.
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