Body of Disappeared Police Inspector Resurfaces in Lagos Waterfront

• Police arrest baale, three others

Chiemelie Ezeobi

Almost nine months after Inspector Musa Sunday of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) disappeared off radar while responding to a distress call, his body wednesday resurfaced at the Ibeju-Lekki waterfront.

Months of due diligence and undercover investigations however paid off as an informant who revealed that the community members were sworn to an oath of secrecy, tipped off the police.

When the informant took the police team to the waterfront, they dug up his decomposed body and his service rifle, an AK47.

When the body was found, the police immediately swung into action and arrested the Baale of Oshoroko Village, Chief Olusegun Oyeri, alongside three others who were identified as Aroki Badiru, Nasiru Isiaka and Akeem Balogun alias Apollo.

Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said the deceased was declared missing on November 29, 2016.

He said, “Inspector Musa Sunday disappeared from a scene of crime in Ibeju-Lekki when him and other officers were deployed to that axis from Ibeju up to Lekki Free Trade Zone.

“In the course of that patrol, they were alerted by the community of a communal fight between two families over land issues.

“Dutifully, they joined the informant but on getting there, one of the community callously turned against the patrol team and at the end of the fight, the team returned but without Sunday.

“The next day, I went there and met the traditional rulers and elders of the community to appeal to them to release the inspector if they have him in their custody. They denied seeing him.

“We put together a team of policemen with technical support from the inspector general of police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) led by DSP Philips and they sustained investigations.

“Based on Intelligence report, nine months later, his decomposed body was found buried along the waterway with his service AK47.

“We swung into action and arrested the baale of the community and three others. The law does not respect anyone and we use this to send a message to criminals pretending to be custodians of our culture.

“During investigation, we gathered that the baale led the community in swearing an oath of secrecy to cover the crime and also he refused to produce his two sons that were also responsible.

“After our investigation, the suspects will be charged and arraigned in court for their acts of criminalities. Meanwhile, the search for other suspects continue.”

Meanwhile, the baale when interrogated denied involvement, adding that he had fingered the chief of the community but the police turned a deaf ear.