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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