Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Lagos State Police Command is facing serious allegations of unlawful detention after arresting and holding 60-year-old Kazeem Raji for six days in a desperate bid to compel his daughter, Zainab Raji, to appear before investigators over an alleged N9 million illegal naira trading business. Raji has been in custody at the State Intelligence Department in Ikeja since Monday, August 17, 2026, after he voluntarily visited the Festac Police Station to explain his daughter's inability to honour a police invitation due to illness. Instead of accepting his explanation, officers arrested and transferred him to the SID, where he has remained despite a bail application filed on his behalf on Friday, August 21, 2026.
The case stems from a business dispute between Zainab Raji and one Amarachi Nnamani, who allegedly gave Zainab N9 million to trade in naira notes with an agreement that she would remit N450,000 weekly from the proceeds. When Zainab was unable to make the remittances, Nnamani petitioned the Festac police in May 2026. However, lawyers for Zainab alleged that Nnamani later collected a substantial portion of the N9 million back but added interest on the outstanding balance to about N40 million before petitioning the police. The transaction, if proven, violates Section 21(4) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007, which criminalises the hawking, selling or trading of naira notes.
Zainab was initially arrested and detained for three days between May 11 and May 13, 2026. Her lawyers alleged that N220,000 was collected from her parents by an Investigating Police Officer before she was released on bail. When she fell ill and could not honour a subsequent invitation, her father went to the station to explain her absence. He was arrested instead. In a bail application addressed to the Officer in Charge of the State Intelligence Department, Raji's lawyer, Cadmus C. Roberts, argued that his client is not the subject of the petition and not the suspect in the matter. He cited Section 4 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, Lagos 2021, and Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution, arguing that his detention in place of his daughter is unlawful.
The application, received at the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters on Friday, August 21, 2026, at 10:47 PM, was still pending as of Saturday, August 22, 2026. Despite the legal arguments, the police have yet to release Raji or respond to the application. When FIJ contacted the Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Abimbola Adebisi, and the Complaint Response Unit on Saturday, they did not respond to calls or messages. The Police Act prohibits proxy arrests, but the practice remains prevalent across the country. As Raji spends his sixth day in detention, human rights advocates are calling for his immediate release, warning that the police's actions constitute a gross violation of his constitutional rights.
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