Nollywood actor, Kalu Ikeagwu’s story has been in the news following his arrest by the Nigerian Police for alleged theft and homicide.
Ikeagwu speaking to Sahara Weekly has opened up on what transpired between him, his family and men of the Nigerian police.
He said: “Yesterday, 26th of September 2016, at about 3:40pm my daughter had just been dropped off at home by her official school bus while I opened the gate for her to come into the house, two men accosted and ordered that I should follow them, then I asked them who they are, instead they flashed an Identity card that only showed police written on it without any name.
Meanwhile, these two men were in plain clothes and one of them had a black looped earring . At this point, I said I was not going to follow them since I do not know who they are.
Suddenly a white unmarked bus pulled –up in front of me and four more men on plain clothes appeared from the bus with one pointing an AK47 rifle at my fore head …”
The actor at this point sensed danger and began dialing his wife’s mobile number to inform a relative of the development, according to him, the men wrestled the phone out of his hand but not before he got the message that “some men purported to be police officers are taking me away…” across to his wife.
Kalu Ikeagwu further narrated that the men overpowered and cuffed him then took him to the Pen-cinema Police station Agege in Lagos State.
The actor noted that the men passed area G Police Station Ogba, a police station closer to his house but did not stop. When they arrived at the Pen-cinema Police station, the police men held him outside the gate until a man appeared wearing a black long coat who simply identified himself as Born Great Benin.
The actor narrated: “I said to him I cannot answer any question from you, unless I am taken into the police station proper, it was this Born Great Benin that later ordered them to take off the cuffs and asked them to bundle me into the bus again and they drove off to somewhere I later identified as area F, police station Ikeja.
“At this area F rather than take me into the station’s main building, I was held at a room when a certain gentle man identified as Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Philips came in and showed me a telephone number and asked if I knew the owner of the number…”
Upon seeing the number, Ikeagwu recognized it belonged to his friend who had picked him up from the airport a few days ago. Ikeagwu further explained that his friend had recently acquired the phone, an iPhone 7 by trading in his former phone, iPhone 6 at the popular computer village in Ikeja.
He said: “That was when they explained to me that since I was the last person that dialed my friend’s phone number it made me a soft target-hence my arrest ”.
The friend for which Ikeagwu was arrested and being held has since returned to Lagos and Kalu Ikeagwu has also been released by men of the Nigerian police, while his friend in company of a lawyer are working with the Nigerian Police Force to identify the phone dealer.
Asked what this experience has done to his family and his personal feelings towards the Nigerian Police, the graduate of English Language had this to say:
“First I will talk about my wife, she is still in fear even till this moment she even stopped me from jugging this morning . I thank God at the way she handled the situation, the situation has made me remember I have a gift in her. For me, it only reminded me of what a movie director in Enugu told me, he said, he can forgive a man that takes away his wife, or a man that stabs him so long as he did not die, but can never lift a finger to help a dying police man. In my life I have never had dealings with the police but it’s unfortunate the way this episode ended. Because their actions are an embarrassment to Nigeria’s image, the first skill of every intelligent police officer is his understanding of psychology but instead they chose to do otherwise”.
From the press perspective; Kalu is disappointed at two media houses and wishes to thank them for not having recourse to hear from him before publishing their stories on this issue
“But when I wedded they had the time to call me and report it, but when this issue came up they forgot to call me, later remembered to call me after they had publish their stories with my private home address knowing how susceptible my family will be to miscreants and exposing me to the public unnecessarily” he concluded.
