Mr Joseph Offor is a retired Chief Superintendent of Police and also a former Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO).
Securitynewsalert recently had chat with him about his encounters with the Inspector General Police, Kayode Egbetokun, which led Offor to dragging him and other senior police officers to court.
Recalled that Securitynewsalert had earlier reported Offor dragged the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, four other senior police officers and the Nigeria Police Force to court, over alleged illegal arrest, detention and torture.
READ: CSP Drags IGP, 2 DCPs, 2 ACPs To Court Over Illegal Arrest, Detention, Torture (1)
Offor said: “I do not have any personal issue with Egbetokun. As PPRO Lagos, I was close to him, because he was Owoseni’s boy. Whenever he came around, I would always aid him to quickly see Owoseni.
The moment he came to Abuja, I rushed to his office to greet him. He cancelled my first transfer to Jigawa State Police Command.
What happened is when people like Asuquo his PSO11 and others found out how close I was to him, they conspired and blackmailed me before him.
They told him that I voted for Peter Obi during the last elections. That I was amongst those who championed that Tinubu would not be sworn in because he did not secure 25 percent in the FCT.
He did not take it lightly and vowed to deal with me. He called the former CP Legal and regretted ever assisting me in the cancellation of my transfer to Jigawa State Police Command.
The case he used as a subterfuge happened in 2022. Johnson Kokumuo finished the case while he was Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Force Criminal Investigations Department ( FCID).
His friends who felt that my legal advice did not favour them bribed Asuquo to blackmail me before him.
In June 2022, I rendered legal advice in a case where a court in Rivers State held that the subject matter of the case is civil and I recommended that the Nigeria Police should obey the judgment of the court.
Because it did not favour the right people, Alkali said who born me to suggest obedience to a court order to him?
Later, when Egbetokun came in, CP Lawrence applied for the CTC of the said Legal Advice and took it to Egbetokun himself. He approved it and followed Alobi to PSO’s office where he told PSO to do everything to assist Alobi.
PSO sent the letter with IGP’s red pen to CP Legal and begged him to assist Alobi. Finally, the letter was minuted to me to treat. I refused to treat the letter based on what happened previously, but the CP Legal begged me and later threatened me with a query. On his instruction, I recommended the application.
It’s on this basis that I was arrested, detained, investigated, transferred and queried.
I did not mind, I answered the query and proceeded to Yobe State. While in Yobe State, they called me to come back for another query, this time because I was absent from incident duty on the 3rd of December 2023, someone defecated in IGP’s office. Another query was issued to me.
I answered it stating that I was not posted on any incident duty as I was not served with any duty schedule. Up until now, I have not been shown anywhere I signed for it. And, also, as a lawyer, I am exempted from incident duty.
After looking at the whole thing, coupled with the IGP’s threat that he must jail me, I decided to step aside. This was after I was detained for eight days for committing no crime.
