Why Is Lekki-Ajah Area J Police Command Holding Raphael Sottil?

BY GBOGBOWA GBOWA

The Sottil family who resides at Kola Taiwo Street, Ofiran Phase 2 Community Development Area (CDA) Onosa, Ibeju Lekki have raised alarm over the arrest and detention of their son, Mr. Raphael Goodness Sottil by the Ajah Lekki Area J Police Command over an apparent private misunderstanding between Raphael’s father (Mr. Samuel Babatunde Sottil) and Sulaimon (aka Alafin) who is believed to be a friend to Officer Toyin, who have been identified as the investigation police officer (IPO).

Perhaps, this news report is more than Area J Police Command Lekki Ajah just holding on to a citizen, Raphael Goodness Sottil, it reeks of alleged official rascality and paints a picture of how a CDA executive, rogue Omo Oniles allegedly bribed police to brutalize and detain a seemingly innocent man, while also shamelessly extorting his family.

The arrest and detention of Raphael which has the trait of criminal conspiracy started when Alafin and his associates in the CDA claimed that they were searching for Raphael’s friend, simplify known as Benjamin, who according to report, they suspect stole an unnamed person’s GSM Phone; and that he should take them to Benjamin’s house.

Raphael reportedly said he didn’t know his friend’s house but can take them to his mother’s shop, which he did. The friend’s mother was reported to have said she does not know the immediate where about of her son, and promised to feed them back on her finding.

They had at that point, together with Raphael left, and Raphael was said to have returned home. However, the following day which was last Saturday, one of them who is also an Omo Onile, Mr Olamide came to the Sottil’s family house and was seen walking away with Raphael.

After few houses apart, Olamide reportedly sent for Raphael’s mother to come over to the CDA’s meeting place and on arrival, allegedly met Olamide and the others beating Raphael.

Upon enquiry, his parents were told he stole a phone.  Those listed to have accused Rapahel and participated in the mass beating includes Alhaji Mosque, Hammed (Treasurer), Alafin, Samod, Yusuf, Abdul Kareem (CDA Chairman), Azeez, Olamiji, FM and six other Omo Oniles.

Confused and angry, his parents were said to have left the place unable to bear the trauma of seeing their son been beaten mercilessly beyond humiliation. But they were said to have returned no t long afterwards and were informed that Benjamin’s mother had come with the stolen phone; but did not come along with him.

According to an eye witness who spoke with our reporter, “The CDA people collected the phone from the mother of the boy and kept beating Raphael. When the boy was about to die they asked the mother to bail him with the sum of N25,000.00.  As a mother she paid the money so that she can take his son. The boy was complaining that he was dizzy and the mother took him to a nearby pharmacy but they rejected the boy that they can’t treat him because he is in a critical condition.

“Almost immediately the boy fainted, we had to call on our street coordinator to help rush him to the clinic; we had to beg the doctor to help treat him because we can’t get a police report at that time.”

It was further alleged that the sum of N40, 000.000 was also collected from the distraught father purportedly for treatment and medications.

Strangely, on Sunday morning which is 10th November 2024, the same Street Coordinator that reportedly took the boy to the hospital came to the Sottil’s house with all the CDA committee members and a police officer to arrest the boy. According to the Mr. Samuel Babatunde Sottil, “They claimed that the doctor said that my son should come for treatment, and in my present they told the police to beat him despite that the boy is in a critical condition and the police started beating him.”

According to him all his plea that the boy is sick fell on deaf ears. Unable to speak any longer because of emotion, another family member said they suspect that the CDA exco has bribed Officer Toyin hence he tried to please them by beating Raphael as a game to satisfy them.

Pushed to the wall and mortified beyond consolation, Raphael’s father is crying for justice for his son and family, saying that his son’s narrest was not only frivolous but that his continued detention is an act of official rascality and compromise in view of the weak case that has been established against him by both the complainants and the tardiness with which the police is handling the investigation.

Tracing the family ordeal to a dispute between him and Sulaimon way back 2009, he narrated how he had dragged the Onosa Community Alafin to the same Area J Command, when he attempted to steal a plot of land he and others sold to him.

Even though the dispute was a long time ago, he believes that Alafin has gotten the sympathy of his associates and friends in the CDA and the clan of Omo Oniles, hence they are all “against me and my family.”

“The guy planning all this took me to buy land at Onosa in 2009, I paid for the half plot and he used force to cut my land to quarter and he still wanted to collect the remaining half left. He used all his family to fight me, the CDA supported him because he is his elder brother.

“We took the case to Area J Command and the Area Commander asked them to provide their document but they were unable to provide document so they didn’t go back to the station. Rather they went to the Omo Onile head and talked to him to beg me.

“He later begged me to forget about the case, so that is how the case was settled.  Till now they are not happy, that is why they came up with this lie. They said it then that they will look for all means to chase me and my family out of the community, especially Sulaimon aka ALAFIN. He was the one that engineered them yesterday to keep beating my son.”

The displeased and agonizing elder Sottil has appealed to the Lagos Police Commissioner to intervene in the matter and save him and his family from convoluted plot to incriminate his son over a matter he knows nothing about. He also said he has lost faith in the impartiality of the Lekki- Ajah Area J Police Command to treat the case.

Attempts to get the reaction of the area command on the matter failed as our reporter’s telephone calls to the Area Commander, Supro Ola failed to connect. Also, text message sent to him on the issue was also not replied as at the time of going to press.