The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has called on the Inspector-General of Police to urgently intervene over the reported detention of Chinedu Eyah, 16, and Kosisochukwu Onojo, 15, by police officers reportedly connected with Area F, Ikeja, Lagos.
According to Mr. Timothy Chika Odoh (Chika Onwa Odo), the boys had gone to Jibowu Park to waybill inverter batteries to a customer before police officers took them to his residence and subsequently arrested them there, along with the batteries.
Chika alleges that an officer identified as Mr. Lawal stated that Chika himself was the person the Police were looking for over a complaint against him. Yet the two boys are reportedly still in custody.
If either child is reasonably suspected of personally committing an offence, the allegation should be disclosed and investigated with full observance of the safeguards applicable to children. If they are being detained merely because the Police are looking for Chika, they should be released immediately.
Children, spouses, workers or relatives must not be used as substitutes or leverage to compel another person to surrender to the Police.
This latest development follows the reported arrest on 22 September 2026 of Chika’s wife, Mrs. Ogechi Juliet Chika, when officers went to their residence while Chika was absent. She was subsequently released following intervention at the level of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.
Chika alleges that his wife, who was pregnant, suffered a miscarriage the following day, which he attributes to the trauma surrounding her arrest.
These incidents form part of a wider series of police actions involving Chika, his workers, family and business through Zone 2 Command, FCID Annex Alagbon and formations under the Lagos State Police Command.
At the centre of Chika’s allegations is Mr. Uche Ozoigwe, whom he identifies as a security manager associated with ATC Telecommunications. Chika alleges that Ozoigwe had previously threatened to ensure that he was imprisoned, driven out of the battery business and rendered jobless and poor. These allegations are subject to investigation.
The continuing movement of complaints and police actions across different formations nevertheless raises a legitimate question: are these genuinely separate criminal complaints supported by independent evidence, or substantially related allegations producing repeated arrests, searches and seizures that are progressively disrupting Chika’s family and business?
RULAAC has therefore asked the IGP to call up all related files from Zone 2 Command, FCID Annex Alagbon, Lagos State Police Command/Area F and any other formation involved, and assign them to one independent investigative team under Force Headquarters.
RULAAC is not asking that Chika be shielded from legitimate investigation. If telecommunications equipment found in his possession was stolen, investigators should identify the items by serial numbers, match them against company asset registers and trace them to specific reported incidents. Chika should equally account for the goods and produce available evidence of their lawful acquisition.
Evidence should settle the matter—not an endless succession of arrests.
The immediate priority, however, is the welfare and liberty of Chinedu Eyah, 16, and Kosisochukwu Onojo, 15.
RULAAC calls on the IGP to urgently ascertain their whereabouts and legal status and secure their release unless there is a lawful and individual evidential basis for proceeding against either child.
Let all the related files come onto one table. Let the evidence establish the truth.
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