Photo: How Police Made Me Sleep In Cell For Six Weeks Over My Boss’ Death Barely A Month Of Resuming Work- Lady

Life for 23-year-old Oluchi Obi in the last three months has
been one tough journey of suffering.

Obi, an Imo State indigene, just wanted to make a living as
a housemaid when she got lucky and got a job through an agent in Ajah area of
Lagos.

“All I needed to do was to take care of the household and
the man’s three children,” she said.

Obi’s boss, 47-year-old Frank Ikoh, was said to be ill at
the time while his siblings were also on hand to take care of him in the house.

They said they just needed the housemaid to take care of the
children and other chores in the house.

But that seemingly simple job would later land Obi in
detention for 39 days on accusation that she had murdered her boss with a
poisoned apple barely one month after she got to the house.

The late Ikoh, who lived with his children in VGC, Ajah, was
said to have separated from his wife, Nkechi Nnadi, six years earlier.

The family lawyer said he was down with an illness, which
gave him recurrent headache even before Obi was employed as a housemaid.

Obi also told Saturday Punch that apart from her, the man’s
sister and brother were also living in the house and taking care of him.

But on December 28, Ikoh succumbed to his illness and passed
away.

According to the family lawyer, Mr. Courage Erhuen, on
January 12, two weeks after Ikoh’s death, a team of policemen with the
deceased’s ex-wife in tow, invaded the house and shot teargas into the compound
“under the guise of effecting an arrest of a suspect for the murder of our
client.”

That day, Saturday Punch learnt that Obi was arrested by the
police, while the ex-wife allegedly marched into Ikoh’s bedroom with the
assistance of policemen and took possession of a safe, which the family lawyer
said contained Ikoh’s personal effects and vital documents.

Obi said the day she was arrested, she had started preparing
the children for school when the policemen came.

“Everywhere was filled with teargas. Everybody, including
the children and oga’s (Ikoh’s) siblings, were coughing badly. So, we had to
move out. I was shocked when the policemen mentioned my name and said they were
looking for me. They took me into custody and the woman took her children away
that day,” she said.

According to Obi, she was told when she was locked up at the
State Criminal Investigation Department that a petition had been filed by
Nkechi, who alleged that she was the one who gave her ex-husband a poisoned
apple before he died.

Obi said, “I had never seen her before until that day. I was
shocked and did not know why she would make such an allegation against me when
she had not even met me before.

“I told the police that I had never brought apple to the
house. Apart from that, the man had been sick before I was employed. The man
was not even the kind of a person who collected anything to eat from people
anyhow. How could he possibly have collected apple from me?

“The woman told the police that somebody must have given me
the poisoned apple to feed to him. She told them that the report she got was
that the children even wanted to eat part of the apple but that I refused. I
don’t know what brought about those lies.

“I told them all these, yet, they detained me in their
terrible cell for almost six weeks. They said until they determined what really
killed the man, they would not free me. I was in the house with the man’s
brother and sister and they all knew I had nothing to do with his death, yet
the police acted only on what the woman told them.”

Erhuen, who is now representing Obi along with the Ikoh
family, said he was surprised that the police could just arrest people based on
an unfounded report from someone who has no evidence of crime and lock the
suspect up for six weeks.

While Obi was in custody at the SCID, the report of the
autopsy invalidating any claim of foul play in the death of the man came out
but yet, they did not release the young woman until the intervention by a
former NDDC director effected her release.

A copy of the result of the autopsy conducted on the
deceased’s body at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, which was
signed by one Dr. Mgbehoma Ikenna, showed the primary cause of death as “acute
left ventricular failure” while the secondary cause was identified as
“hypertensive heart disease”.

On January 28, the late Ikoh’s lawyer, filed a petition at
the office of the Assistant Inspector-General of Police calling for the release
of Obi and the personal property of the late Ikoh carted away by the police on
the orders of the wife. Again on February 22, another petition was sent to the
office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, SCID, Yaba.

Erhuen said no action was taken on the issue on both times.
Apart from demanding the release of the belongings of Ikoh reportedly taken
away, the lawyer is calling on police authorities to take necessary action to
remedy the untold hardship brought against the lady as a result of the false
accusation against her.

“The police and the ex-wife openly boasted that they were
well connected within the corridors of power at the police high command. When
they invaded the house, the deceased’s siblings and relatives tried to stop
them from taking the man’s safe away, but the police descended on them and beat
them up,” he said.

Attempts to get hold of the deceased’s ex-wife have been
abortive as an individual who picked her phone when our correspondent contacted
said she did not know anyone by that name.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Police
Command, Dolapo Badmus, could not be reached for comment as well as her phone
line did not connect when our correspondent called her.

Erhuen said he had approached the Lagos State High Court, to
seek the release of the personal properties of the deceased taken away by the
police. But the case has yet to be assigned to a judge. He also said he would
be demanding the sum of N10m as compensation from the police for the unlawful
detention of Obi.