Story by Iyiola Ayomide
It was gathered that Sergeant Abraham, being her orderly, had a direct impact on her work. SP Lilian was reportedly concerned about protecting him due to her upcoming retirement this month.
A Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Superintendent of Police (SP) Osemwegie Lilian at the South Ibie Police Station, Auchi, has been accused of attempting to shield a police officer, Sergeant Abraham Ozuobor, who sexually abused a 17-year-old girl in Edo State.
It was gathered that Sergeant Abraham, being her orderly, had a direct impact on her work. SP Lilian was reportedly concerned about protecting him due to her upcoming retirement this month.
Inspector Edith Uduma told SaharaReporters on Wednesday how she caught Sergeant Abraham Ozuobor half-naked raping a 17-year-old girl arrested for allegedly stealing a mobile phone.
Inspector Edith explained that on October 7, 2024, she was on night duty as the Charge Room Officer (CRO) when Sergeant Ozuobor approached her, requesting a cell key.
She then instructed the cell guard, Constable Moses Ogedengbe, to assist Abraham by bringing out the suspect.
She said both of them did not return the cell key until around 10:00 hours, which prompted her to search for it.
According to her, "I asked the cell guard, Moses Ogedengbe, and he simply replied that the key was still with Abraham Ozuobor. When I questioned why he hadn’t returned it, he said he was collecting a statement from his suspect and would return it afterward.
"I waited for more than 30 minutes without seeing Abraham, so I started searching for him."
She told SaharaReporters that she went to his office but couldn’t find him there. Determined, she continued searching from office to office.
"When I arrived at the admin office, I saw the padlock on the admin door hanging but unlocked. I decided to push the door and noticed that someone was pushing from inside,” she said.
Inspector Edith said she overpowered him by pushing harder and managed to enter.
"I then saw that it was Abraham Ozuobor, and he was half-naked. I also noticed a female teenager, who had been detained for four days for stealing a phone, lying unconscious on a three-seater chair. I decided to record a video of the situation,” she said.
Speaking further, she told SaharaReporters that she tried calling her DPO immediately, but the line did not connect. She then reached out to the station officer (SO), who came to the station that night to see them both.
She said, "The SO (Adamu Ishaku) ordered me to return the girl to the cell, which I did. He told me to hold on until he could reach the DPO, as he was also unable to contact him that night."
Inspector Edith added that the station officer went home that night but returned at 5 am the following morning (8/10/2024).
Meanwhile, Ishaku, the station officer, asked her to explain the situation again, and she repeated her account.
She told SaharaReporters that Ishaku informed her that the DPO had instructed him not to send the video to anyone and that she should not make any official entry.
"But the video was already with those on duty with us that night, so I insisted and made the entry in our crime diary that morning," she said.
When the DPO arrived that morning and saw the entry she made, she became angry at her.
Later, she asked Ishaku, the station officer, to call her to her office immediately.
She narrated, "She then asked me, 'What will you gain by getting Abraham dismissed?' She told me not to report Abraham, but I insisted and reported him. She then warned that if Abraham were dismissed, she would ensure I was dismissed as well.”
"She ordered the immediate release of the teenage girl, likely to prevent the girl's parents from discovering what had happened to their daughter," Inspector Uduma stated.
She told SaharaReporters that when the incident happened, it coincided with her husband bringing her food to the station.
"This happened on the night my husband was bringing food for me at the station, so he witnessed the incident. He also saw how the people on duty with me were sharing the video among themselves.
"As we speak, my husband, Inspector Ibrahim Muhammad, was arrested on November 11, 2024, and taken to the State Headquarters in Benin, where he remains, for the same matter. I have also been informed that they are making efforts to arrest and prosecute me for reasons that I still have not been cleared of," Inspector Edith said.
She said after receiving threats and harassment from her DPO at the time, she had no choice but to report the matter to the Area Commander.
She explained that the Area Commander ordered everyone involved, including the DPO, to come to his office.
She said, "After hearing everyone’s statements, he ordered the detention of Sergeant Abraham Ozuobor and directed that all of us, including the DPO, should give written statements.
"My DPO, SP Osemwegie Lilian, then knelt down and pleaded with the Area Commander, saying, ‘Please, sir, let’s drop this matter and not let it come out. I don’t want it to affect my retirement from the police on November 15, 2024.’”
She said that after the meeting with the Area Commander, the matter did not come up until the 11th of October, 2024, when the DPO called her to her office, stating that the Area Commander had called to see them.
"Upon getting there, the Area Commander said the Commissioner of Police (CP) was already aware of the case. He asked me how it got to the CP, and I said I had no idea how it reached the CP,” she said.
Inspector Edith said the Area Commander ordered everyone, including the DPO, to write statements.
She said, "On the 14th of October, 2024, the Area Commander called through the station officer, stating that the Commissioner of Police wanted to see all of us.
"Upon reaching the CP's office, we found that he was not present. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) then interviewed all of us, including the DPO.
"After listening to all of us, the Deputy Commissioner of Police ordered the DPO to hand over Sergeant Abraham Ozuobor to the Provost for detention. He was angry at my DPO for not detaining Abraham all this while.”
Inspector Edith said she was surprised by the DPO’s actions, as the DPO was supposed to uphold the law and condemn immoral behavior. Instead, the DPO was defending Abraham, claiming that I intended to collect N1 million from Abraham, who had abused a minor.
"The DCP then told her, in my presence, that the DPO should not teach him his job, that I have not committed any offense by reporting the crime, he then told us to do as he instructed," she said.
She said that on October 14, the DCP called her and told her that he saw her dismissal letter on a Police WhatsApp platform, confirming that she had been dismissed.
Inspector Edith said she could not confirm the dismissal at that time.
However, on October 17, she received a call from the Area Commander, instructing her to come to his office.
"It turned out that people from Abuja came to his office to take our statements. We all gave another statement,” she said.
The IPO from Abuja then said that the teenager had claimed in her statement, "I was the one who brought her out of the police cell, drugged her, and gave her water. After taking it, she did not know what happened to her next.
"The IPO also told me that they traveled all the way to the girl’s village to get her statement. I immediately told him that was a lie. Nothing of the sort happened that day.”
According to Inspector Edith, "I told him that I had no idea how the girl ended up in that cell in the first place, until I heard my colleagues saying she had stolen a phone when I resumed work on the 7th. There was no way I would have freed a detainee who was not even my suspect. I told the Abuja IPO that I never did anything like what the girl allegedly wrote against me."
She told SaharaReporters that one Inspector Inah Yibala sent her the dismissal letter on her phone on Monday, November 11, 2024.
She said all efforts to get an explanation for her dismissal have been unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Edith's daughter was asking about the whereabouts of her father from the Area Commander of Edo South Ibie, saying she had not heard anything about him since he was detained and placed incommunicado.
The Area Commander responded that Inspector Ibrahim Muhammad is currently detained at the state police command in Benin.
"He is with them there, he will soon come," he said.
When Edith's daughter, in a crying voice, said she didn't want anything to happen to her father because he was innocent in the matter, the Area Commander responded, "Is it me he has a problem with, so what concerns me? I did not detain your father. Don't lie against me. I was following instructions from above."
Edith's daughter said, "I know my father has nobody from authority to fight for him, but he has God. All the conspiracies you're making will fail."
Earlier in November, SaharaReporters reported that the Edo State Police Command had confirmed the dismissal of Inspector Edith Uduma and Sergeant Abraham following an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct and extortion.
In a statement, the Police Public Relations Officer, Moses Yamu, disclosed that the dismissals were executed in accordance with departmental protocols.
Yamu stated, “Inspector Edith Uduma was found to have exploited her position to extort money from Sergeant Abraham. Additionally, she involved her husband, Inspector Ibrahim Mohammed, in this illicit scheme.”
The statement added, “That contrary to reports from certain quarters, the said female police officer, AP/no 228719 Insp. Edith Uduma, was the Charge Room Officer (CRO) on 07/10/2024, the night F/No. 504694 Sgt Abraham allegedly raped a female suspect in the station.
“The female officer, instead of reporting the incident to the Divisional Police Officer or the Incident Duty Officer as the case may be, for disciplinary actions to be initiated against the erring officer, took advantage of the situation to enrich herself by calling her husband, AP No. 228652 Insp. Ibrahim Mohammed, whom she conspired with to unlawfully demand the sum of N1m from the sergeant to assist him conceal the matter.”
Yamu explained that the Sergeant offered only N45,000 and that dissatisfied with his offer, they decided to report the erring officer to the DPO and also share the video on social media.
It said, “Following these events, an orderly room trial was initiated against all the officers, which led to the dismissal of Sgt. Abraham and Insp Edith Uduma.
“Her husband, Insp Ibrahim Mohammed, however, was reduced to the rank of Sergeant for getting criminally involved in demanding money to conceal such a gross violation of the Standard Operating Procedure of the Nigeria Police.
“To this end, the Edo State Police Command warns that no amount of propaganda, disinformation or misinformation can absolve her or the husband from facing the punishment meted out to them.
"He said any one of them displeased with the judgement had the right to appeal as stipulated in the Police Act and Regulation,” Yamu added.
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