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Christopher Oji
Tension is brewing at the popular Auto Spare Parts and Machineries Dealers Association (ASPANDA) Market, International Trade Fair, Lagos, as it’s leader, Mr Daniel Oforkansi, was allegedly to have been forcefully picked by the police.
The traders are, however, protesting what they described as abduction of their president by the police.
Oforkansi was picked by the police following two petitions written to them by a group of traders in the market, who alleged that the president and his executives embezzled some amount of money meant for electricity bill, highhandedness, falsification of their constitution and intention to perpetrate themselves as life executives of the market.
The second petition was written by Anthony Anumalu, who alleged that Oforkansi and his executives sized his container with goods worth over N247 million.
But Oforkansi debunked the allegations, describing them as malicious and false. He also alleged that he was abducted by policemen while on the way to a restaurant.
Giving a graphic account on how he was allegedly abducted by the police, Oforkansi said the law enforcement agents, who should have followed due process by inviting him rather abducted him as kidnappers.
He said: “On the fateful day, I went to eat without my police escorts because I move freely as I am loved by 95 percent of the traders. I am loved because of the good job I am doing in the market. As I was driving, I was accosted by some policemen who flagged down my vehicle. I stopped because I have no skeleton in my cupboard. I cannot run because of police officers because I am not a thief. As I stopped, the senior officer among them asked me to open the door, which I did and he jumped inside the car, grabbed my phone and switched it off. I asked what the matter was and he said I was under arrest. I asked what my offence was and he said there were two petitions against me.
“The police officer ordered me to drive to Area E Police Command in Festac Town but I requested for my phone to contact my people that I was with the police but the police officer said he won’t give me my phone. It was at that point that I started suspecting that I may be in the hands of kidnappers in police uniform. I requested to know whether they booked at the Trade Fair police station inside that market which was also a stone throw to where the drama was going on but the policemen got angry.”
It was the people who saw how I was being abducted that contacted the market chief security officer (CSO), who contacted Trades Fair divisional police officer who confirmed that the policemen did not book in the station. “I was moved to Area E Command from where they took me to Abuja.
The questions are: why should I be abducted because of mere petitions? Why should the police not follow due process and why should they forcefully take my phone without allowing me to contact my people? I want the police high command to say if I am too small to be invited. If the police had respectfully invited me, I would have honoured their invitation rather than the way I was treated like a common criminal. I was the one who calmed my people down, otherwise something else would have happened.”
He said that the allegations against him were spurious, stressing that those who wrote the petitions are enemies of progress.
He said the allegation of making himself a life president of the association is myopic and false.
He denied seizing any container, adding that the matter was in court.
He, therefore, called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu, to order full scale investigate into the allegations levelled against him as well as investigate the conduct of the officers who allegedly abducted him.
He also appealed to traders to be calm and allow the police to do due diligence.
