The family of Titilayo Arowolo (nee Oyakhire), a banker, who was allegedly stabbed to death by her husband, Akolade, has expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which investigation of the murder was handled.Lawyer and spokesperson for the Oyakhire family, Mr. Nelson Ekoh, said this at a press conference in Lagos on Monday.Ekoh maintained that ever since the gruesome murder of the 29-year-old banker, the police had failed to provide details of investigation, which could strengthen the prosecution.Citing inconsistencies in the report of how Akolade was arrested, Ekoh said, Akolade was said to have fled the crime scene after killing the deceased on June 24. He jumped into his car with blood stains but was accosted by traffic policemen for violating a traffic law.The policemen said Akolade, in a bid to evade arrest, immediately left the car on the road, got hit by a car but immediately stood up before fleeing on a commercial motorcycle.Ekoh said the policemen claimed they impounded the car and took it to Aswani Police Station.He however said after further probe, the Investigating Police Officer at the police station claimed the car was abandoned by the roadside and made no mention of seeing the suspect before then.He said, A day after the murder, after the family had learnt of the murder, we went to Aswani Police Station to report the matter. On the premises of the station, we saw Akolades car and when I asked the IPO how they got it, they said Akolade left the car after evading arrest and traffic officials impounded the car.However, when I asked to see the traffic policemans report, the IPO changed his story, claiming that they never saw Akolade. Rather, they were radioed that someone had abandoned a vehicle on the roadside and they then later impounded it.The Oyakhire familys spokesman said the police were also being evasive with investigations.He said, At the crime scene, we recovered four mobile phones and we asked the police to get the call logs from the necessary network providers so we can get the details of calls made as this could strengthen our case.Over five months now, the police have not been able to get the call logs from the networks. The Oyakhire family is not happy at all. In fact, some weeks ago, when the father of the deceased went to inquire from the State Criminal Investigation Department about the call logs, the policemen said the telecommunications networks were not forthcoming.Ekoh further expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which journalists were treated at the court by policemen and prison officials when Akolade last appeared in court.He said, At the last hearing at Oyingbo Magistrates Court, prisons officials were struggling with a journalist over his camera when he tried to take pictures of Akolade. I wonder why they will be protecting him in such a manner.Even during the first court session at Yaba Magistrates Court, policemen were very hostile towards journalists and in fact, Akolade was not brought to court in handcuffs which is the standard procedure for someone facing charges for a capital offence.Similarly, Director of Project Alert, a human rights group, Dr. Josephine Chukwuma, said the harassment of journalists by policemen and prisons officials at the court was antithetical to the principles of democracy.The Nigerian constitution guarantees the freedom of the press. Security officials should know better than to harass journalists for doing their job, she said.However, at the SCID, a senior police officer, who spoke to our correspondent in confidence because he was not authorised to speak to the press, said the familys (Oyakhires) worries were uncalled for as the police did a wonderful job.He said, We have already established that Akolade killed his wife, Omozoje (Titilayo). Even when he was telling us stories of how she stabbed herself to death, we did not believe him.We had already written in our report that the deceased was killed with a blunt object long before the autopsy supported our report. So, I wonder why they want investigations to continue.When quizzed on why the police had not been able to get the call logs from the appropriate GSM networks, the policeman said, We have requested call logs from the necessary telecommunications networks but as usual, they havent replied us. It is not only the Arowolo case that is like this, network providers usually do not respond on time and we cannot compel them to give us the call logs.
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