A Ghanaian lady named Magdalene Hackman, has accused police officers at the Area M Police Command Headquarter in the Idimu axis of Lagos of discrimination during an investigation into a case of domestic violence and abduction of her 3-year-old baby by his Nigerian father, Udoka Ezeimo.
Hackman said that the police, rather than carry out an impartial investigation in order to locate her son and arrest her live-in-lover for battery, had been pussy-footing over the case.
According to her, she reported a case of domestic violence and child abduction to the police, but since she reported the matter at Isheri Police Station, followed by its transfer to Area M Police Command, the matter appeared to have met a dead end.
According to Hackman, she was shocked when an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), in charge of Area M Police Command Headquarter, after asking her to narrate what led to her lodging a complaint with the police, later asked her to go back to her violator. He told her that Ezeimo had promised never to hit her again.
She alleged that Ezeimo had disappeared with their son after telling her that he would never marry her because she’s a Ghanaian. Hackman was not the only person disappointed in the conduct of the area commander.
The Secretary of the Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN), Ebenezer Omejalile, said: “Udoka was instructed by the Isheri Police Station Divisional Police Officer (DPO), to come along with the abducted baby, but surprisingly, he didn’t show up with the baby. Udoka and Magdalene were also taken to see the Area M Commander and it was shocking that the area commander chose to be ethnic biased as he didn’t see anything wrong in what Udoka did.
“The Area Commander asked the woman to go back to the man, who had publicly humiliated her because she’s a Ghanaian and with so much domestic violence recorded in the relationship. I’m very disappointed with the area commander. How can he ask a woman, who had been abused and traumatised, to go back to such a relationship? “According to the Child’s Rights Act, every child needs protection. The Act, Sections 1, 2 and 3, state that everything we do should be in the best interest of the child. Also, in the law, children who are not up to five years old are usually under the custodies of their mothers.”
When Ezeimo was contacted to get his side of the story, he responded that he didn’t have anything to say on the matter as the matter was already before the police.
He also hissed and dropped the call.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Muyiwa Adejobi, was contacted concerning the matter, he said: “The area commander agreed to settle the matter amicably between the couple. Udoka had alleged that his wife wanted to travel to Ghana with the baby and he feared she wouldn’t return to Nigeria with the baby. That was why he didn’t want her to take the baby away. But right now, the husband has taken the baby to somewhere in the east. He has, when he was contacted by the police, promised to return the baby to Lagos and opted for peaceful settlement.”
