An employee of Ecobank in Lagos, Mr
Babatunde Oke, has died in the custody
of Falomo Police Divisional Headquarters,
Lagos, after he was detained for three
days over his alleged involvement in a
N1.2m fraud.
Lawyer to the late banker, Mr Femi
Olatunde said:
“I was at the police station before they
brought him there at about 7:30pm on
Tuesday, the police refused to grant him
bail. They said we must bring N1m. This
was a case of fraud involving about
N1.2m. The following day, his father came
from Abeokuta and they told him the
same thing. I negotiated with them and
they brought their demand down to
N600,000. The father told me that he was
going to bring N100,000 and I was to
make arrangements to get N100,000. I
spoke with him on the phone around
12:45pm on Thursday and 30 minutes
later, I was told he was dead.
“They said he drank a bottle of soft drink
before he started convulsing and then
slumped. When I saw his body, red
substance was coming out of his mouth...
"The autopsy will come out on Tuesday,
so we cannot conclude for now.”
Oke, who is survived by a wife and 2 kids,
was said to have worked at the Ogba
Lagos branch of the bank.
According to a media consultant, David
Ekpo, who wrote about Oke’s death on
social media, the deceased had paid part
of the missing money before he was
arrested by the police.
The deceased’s immediate younger
brother, Seun Oke, corroborated the
lawyer’s account and added that he was
at the police station when his brother
died.
He faulted the bank for freezing the
deceased’s children’s account, making it
difficult for his wife to withdraw money
for their upkeep.
He said, “Tunde’s wife also works with
Ecobank. When I got to the police station
on Thursday, I saw him and we spoke. I
was telling him it was wrong for the bank
to freeze the kids’ account. It’s actually
against the law. I know because I’m also a
banker. They did not allow the wife who is
a signatory to the account to withdraw
from it.
"He called his wife’s phone to tell her to
call the man that was supposed to give
the lawyer money, but she didn’t pick her
phone.. So, he called the man himself.
Later, they asked him to enter another
room where other suspects were kept.”
Seun Oke added that he and his mother
were outside the police station waiting for
the lawyer to come with the money, when
he saw a van taking his brother to the
hospital.
He said, “I spotted my brother’s shirt and
saw that he was lying down in the van,
unconscious. I ran and flagged them
down. They allowed me enter, when they
knew I was his brother. He was lying
almost lifeless. I saw him making little
movements on our way to the hospital.
He was foaming; some substance and
blood were coming out of his mouth.
When we got to the hospital, he was
pronounced dead.
“When I went back to the hospital, they
told me that when he entered that room,
he saw somebody drinking a soft drink
and he asked a lady in the station to buy
one for him too. Then he uncorked the
bottle, put the cork in his pocket and
drank from the bottle. He then started
convulsing and slumped. I suspect foul
play.”
Also, the mother of the deceased said she
was with him on the day of the
unfortunate incident and that she did not
suspect anything until he was brought
out from the station on a stretcher.
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