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By Ngozi Uwujare
The Oyo/Osun Area Command of the Nigerian Customs Service and a publisher of a local magazine, MSC Magazine based in Ikeja, Lagos State, are on a warpath over what the Customs authorities tagged “blackmailing.”
The publisher of the magazine, Otunba Gbenga Adebayo is accusing the police of illegally detaining him and degrading his personality through the instigation of the Area Controller in charge of Oyo/Osun Area Command of the Nigerian Customs, Comptroller Adamu AbdulKadir.
But the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Nigerian Custom Service, Oyo/Osun Area Command, Kayode Wey, an Assistant Superintendent of Customs, has described Adebayo as a blackmailer.
The publisher of the magazine, Otunba Gbenga Adebayo told Saturday Sun why he’s unhappy with the Customs.
Said he: “On August 24, 2021, I wrote a letter to the Comptroller of Customs, Mr Adamu Abdulkadir asking him to respond to the unconfirmed rumours and allegations made against him. It was a direct letter to him. I never published it in my magazine or in any media at all. The rationale behind the letter was to afford Mr Adamu Abdulkadir fair hearing to enable him to balance the story I intended to publish on the allegations made against him. The PRO of the Customs Command, Mr Kayode Wey refuted the rumours and described the allegations against his boss as unsubstantiated allegations. I had published two pages of the achievements of the command in my magazine.
“On October 12, 2021, I received a phone call from the Nigeria Police ‘B’ Division that the police were looking for my wife. I went to ‘B’ Division, Akure. I was told that some policemen were on their way from Oyo State Police Command to apprehend me. The policemen from the Anti-kidnapping Squad from Ibadan came to Lagos around 5:00pm that day to arrest me. I was treated badly. As a journalist, I have the constitutional role to play as a ‘watch dog’ of the society. Mr Adamu Abdulkadir’s conduct should be investigated. I was abused in my office when he instigated my arrest. The torture and embarrassment, intimidation and detention as a journalist who has merely performed his constitutional role should be investigated. Such misconduct is unconstitutional and barbaric. I was detained for one day in police custody and I was granted bail.”
Adebayo, who hails from Ondo State, explained further that he later went to his lawyer, L.K .Dare and Co, and eventually dragged the Comptroller of Customs, Mr Adamu Abdulkadir and the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mrs Ngozi Onadeko to court.
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“I have sent a copy to the Comptroller General of Customs, General Hammed Ali and the Inspector General of Police, Mr Usman Baba Alkali. We are waiting for them in the court. I want justice to be done in this case. I have never blackmailed him or anyone,” he added.
The Saturday Sun reporter visited the Nigeria Customs headquarters in Ibadan and spoke with the PRO, Mr Kayode Wey. He also stated his own side of the story.
Said he: “My boss, the Comptroller of Customs, Mr Adamu Abdulkadir has nothing to hide for any journalist. His door is wide open. He didn’t have any skeleton in his cupboard. The journalist, Otunba Gbenga Adebayo sent a letter, which he addressed to my boss. It was pure blackmail. My boss, Mr Adamu AbdulKadir sent for him for clarification and he refused to come. Before then, the same Otunba Adebayo has requested the achievements of the command, which he published on two pages in his magazine. We were surprised on August 24, 2021 when Otunba Adebayo wrote a letter to my boss. We saw it as blackmail. We invited him for clarification, but he refused to come. He told us to send it into his email.”
Wey said the Customs boss then made a report to the appropriate authorities complaining that he was being blackmailed by the publisher.
Wey noted: “My boss, Mr Adamu Abdulkadir wrote a petition to the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mrs Ngozi Onadeko, on September 6, 2021. It was the Anti-kidnapping Squad, Oyo State Police Command that arrested Otunba Adebayo in Lagos. The police detectives invited my boss to see Otunba Adebayo face to face. Otunba Adebayo denied the story. My boss asked him where he saw the story for which he said he wanted clarification. Otunba Adebayo knelt down and started begging my boss to forgive him. My boss told Otunba Adebayo that what he did to him was blackmailing. Otunba Adebayo pleaded for forgiveness.
“My boss later told Otunba Adebayo to write a letter of apology, and he, Otunba Adebayo promised to write the letter. Otunba Adebayo actually spent one day in police custody before he was granted bail. While we were waiting for Otunba’s apology letter, he went and sued my boss, the Comptroller of Customs, Mr Adamu Abdulkadir and the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Police Command, our CG Custom, Hammed Ali and ACG Custom. He has also written a petition against my boss. We have forwarded the petition to our legal section. Our stand is that we are waiting for the police report after the investigation that is being carried out on him.”
But while reacting to the allegations by the Customs PRO, Otunba Adebayo said it was true that he begged before the police.
“It is true that I knelt down and apologise. This was because I was hooked up and wanted to be released. I begged and apologise under duress,” he told the reporter.
