The family of Dr. Nosa Omoregie, a former Education commissioner in Old Bendel State, has engaged the police in a war of words over constant harassment of the family.
Omoregie, a hypertension patient, was said to have collapsed and rushed to hospital on Thursday after policemen from the State Criminal Investigation Department visited his property at Aigbokhian Street, off Sapele Road, Oghoghobi, Benin City.
The police were said to be on the trail of a former owner of the property, John Mayaki, after Governor Godwin Obaseki petitioned police authorities accusing him of defamation.
Omoregie’s wife, Julie told reporters that policemen had visited the property more than four times looking for Mayaki.
She disclosed that her children bought the property for them from Mayaki.
“They came and pasted an invitation letter on our gate. They said we should produce one John Mayaki and we told them the man was no longer here because he had sold the property to us. But they insisted that we were hiding him in the house. Then they said they wanted to search our house and I asked, where is the warrant paper because it is difficult nowadays to know if they are genuine policemen.
“But before I returned to the house, my husband who is hypertensive had already collapsed and we had to rush him to the hospital. His blood pressure had shot up and doctors had to battle to bring it down,” she said.
Mrs Omoregie maintained that they were no criminals and she would hold the police responsible should any harm befall her husband.
Reacting, Edo State Deputy Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation Department, Yusuf Usman said Obaseki’s petition and another one from his lawyer necessitated the visit to Mayaki’s last known place of abode.
He disclosed that the last petition dated back to January 10 and the police needed to work on it so as not to be seen as biased.
Usman added that the police did not know that Mayaki had sold the house to Omoregie.
He stated that a police team only visited the residence on Wednesday, stressing that he was not aware of any previous visit.
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