Mr. Shettima Fasasi Yusuf, a 64-year-old proprietor based in Lokoja, he Kogi State capital, is yet to recover from the nightmarish experience he had in the hands of a team of police dispatched from Lion Building in Lagos to Lokoja to arrest him and his wife over a matrimonial disagreement between his son and his daughter-in-law.

The dateline was Saturday, October 12, 2024. He was in his garden within the premises of Shettima Quintessence School in Lokoja, when the unexpected visitors stormed his premises. Their mission was at first unclear.

In the company of the visiting police was his daughter-in-law, a lady he had spoken to on phone less than 48 hours earlier. What could be wrong? Upon seeing her, the first thing that occurred to him was ?hope all is well with my son?? Before he could put himself together, the visiting police team announced to him that they were in Lokoja to invite him for questioning over allegations of kidnapping and abduction leveled against him by his daughter-in-law, Aisha Sanni Mohammed.

She had alleged to the police that her father-in-law had abducted her three children, ages between 5 and 10 years, who were brought under his custody by their father: Alhaji Tasleem Yusuf, who is his son.

The veteran educationist and Proprietor of Shettima Quintessence School at first thought nothing about the allegation. ?Since they were brought to Lokoja, they have been in regular touch with their mother on phone, through video calls. So, I don?t know where the issue of kidnapping came in,? he said.

But he was mistaken in thinking that it was a non-issue as he was soon bundled into a waiting Sienna Utility van along with his wife and his three grandchildren. They were half-naked. The vehicle headed for Area 'D' Police Station in Lokoja, where he was asked to write a statement. Midway, the process of statement writing was aborted and he was once again, taken into the waiting vehicle.

All this while, he was in shorts and singlet while his wife was still in her night wear. Before he knew it, that they were in Obajana and then Akure, Ondo State, with none of those he left behind knowing his whereabouts.

?It was in Akure they returned our phones to enable us establish contact with the children at home. We ate nothing, not even water,? Shettima Fasasi Yusuf revealed. Continuing, he narrated: ?We eventually got to Lagos at about midnight even though we were initially not informed that we would be taken to Lagos and we were taken straight into the cell and left there till Monday afternoon without food or water. As someone hypertensive, I was never allowed to take my medication and if you must know, none of us, either my wife or myself, had a dime on us. It was a nasty experience.

?By Monday we were taken before the Area Commander, who read out our offense as kidnapping and threat to life. How?

?All efforts by us to make clarification were rebuffed with the Area Commander already taking sides and making attempts to put to us judgmental and leading questions just to nail us.?

It took the intervention of one of his sons who, resides in Lagos, working through the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), to secure their bail.

Narrating how his travails started, Shettima told the Lokoja-based Graphic that he was well aware that his son had been having running marital issues with his wife and all efforts to settle them were to no avail. When the matter became serious, his son brought the children to him in Lokoja. He recalled that he promptly he put a call through to his son?s wife to inform her that the children had been brought to him in Lokoja and also expressed his displeasure that they had allowed their marital problems to linger. He also made a report at the Police Headquarters in Lokoja while his son equally reported at the Area J Division Elemoro in Lagos to inform them of his intentions to send his children to his father. He was trying to be careful even when the children in question are his grandchildren.

Shettima said: ?My son?s wife was very much aware that her children were with me in Lokoja as I made it a point of duty that they were in constant touch through phone calls and video calls. I have all the necessary evidences.

?I am therefore surprised how I came to be accused of kidnapping and abducting my own grandchildren by a woman I took and treated like my own daughter.

?The annoying part is that the police took sides, released the kids to their mother without proper investigation, denied me the right to explain my side, locked my wife and I up for three days without food or water, denied me the use of my medication even after I repeatedly told them that I am hypertensive. To say the least, that act is wicked.

?I don?t know of any Nigerian law that says a parent could be made to suffer for the offence (if any), committed by a child.

?This is a marital problem that is already before a court and now, I am being accused of kidnapping, abduction and threat to life. What a grass use of power??

The traumatised educationist said that he can imagine what some people go through in the hands of the police for no just cause. Though his children have since taken up the issue, Shettima said what pains him the most is that the police decided to act a script written for them by a woman to torture him and his wife. He described his travail in the hands of the police as unfortunate and condemnable.

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