Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has been linked to a controversial police station allegedly funded by a suspected car theft kingpin during his tenure as the Commissioner of Police in Kwara State. The outpost, located in Maida Town, Ilorin, was reportedly constructed by Ajadi Habeeb, a well-known car dealer with alleged ties to organized vehicle theft.
Two dismissed police officers, Glorious Babatunde and Shola Akano, have come forward with claims that their refusal to accept an ₦8 million bribe offered by ASP Ali Abdukadri—allegedly acting to protect Ajadi—led to their unjust dismissal from the force. According to the officers, their investigation into a 2018 armed robbery case led them to uncover a network of car thieves connected to Ajadi. Despite arresting suspects and recovering stolen vehicles, they say they were pressured by senior officers to drop the case.
Babatunde alleges that ASP Abdukadri attempted to stage an arrest of Ajadi as a cover-up but instead allowed him to escape. Not long after, Abdukadri was promoted and placed in charge of the very police station Ajadi was said to have built. The officers claim they were subsequently subjected to a sham internal trial and dismissed from service under false pretenses, with Egbetokun disclaiming responsibility for their dismissal letters, despite being the commissioner at the time.
The House of Representatives reportedly launched an investigation into the matter after Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase raised the issue on the floor. Wase condemned the dismissal of the officers, who had refused a bribe and recovered stolen property, and demanded justice. However, one of the dismissed officers, Akano, claims that the findings of the investigation—which allegedly implicated Egbetokun—were suppressed by former Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila to avoid disrupting Egbetokun’s rise to the position of Inspector General.
To date, efforts to obtain official comments from the Nigeria Police Force have been unsuccessful, and the dismissed officers continue to call for an independent investigation and reinstatement, asserting that they were punished for upholding the integrity of the force.
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