-Claims Indian Suspect offered him N100m Bribe
An Assistant Inspector General of Police, Abdulyari S. Lafia has written the US Ambassador in Nigeria, Mr. Richard M. Mills, detailing how his boss, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun allegedly scuttled investigations into a case of alleged rape of a US citizen, Miss Malory Henry, by an Indian, Mr. Kumar Gaurav.
In the petition dated August 1, 2025, Lafia told the US envoy that police investigators were proving the allegation by Miss Henry, when his boss summarily ordered the police officers to hands off the matter that was already in court.
The petition was copied the High Commissioners of India, the United Kingdom, as well as the Ambassadors of France, China, Germany and Italy. Also copied was the Director General, National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed.
Penned the Police AIG: “Sometime in April 2023, a case of rape was reported to the office of then IGP Usman Baba Alkali, involving an American and an Indian Citizen, where it was alleged that the suspect, one Mr. Kumar Gurav, an Assistant Manager with Olam Rice Nigeria, resident in Makurdi, Benue State raped the victim, an American Citizen working in Nigeria, Miss Malory Henry who is a colleague of the suspect.
“This case was referred to then Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB), now Force Intelligence Department (FID), for discreet investigation by the former IGP Alkali who directed that I personally handle the investigation due to its international dimension involving foreign nationals.
“The facts of this case is that the victim alleged that her colleague, Mr. Kumar Gaurav, lured her to his home in Makurdi, Benue State, on 30th March, 2023, for dinner while she was on official assignment from Abuja, where he drugged and brutally raped her, including forceful anal penetration without her consent, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable by Section 284 of the Penal Code Law, a crime that not only violates the dignity and safety of the victim but also poses a serious threat to societal values, law and order”.
Continued the top police office, “After a thorough investigation by the team, headed by AIG Lafia, it was found out both the victim and suspect were staff of Olam Rice, Nigeria, and were in Makurdi on the date of the said rape incident. Medical examination obtained showed ‘incontrovertible evidence’ prompting the police to deny him bail.
“In a bid to escape from the long arm of the law,” the petitioner noted, “Gaurav offered the sum of One Hundred Million Naira (N100,000, 000) for the case to be compromised. According to AIG Lafia, when his team refused the bribe offered by the suspect.
“At the end of investigation, “prima facie” case of rape was established against Gaurav. He was subsequently arraigned on May 12, 2023, before a High Court of Justice, Benue State of Nigeria, Justice T. A. Kume.
“On assumption of Egbetokun as the Deputy Inspector General of Police (IGP) at the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID),” alleged the petition, “he showed an unusual interest in the matter,” continuing to mount pressure on him to compromise the case.
Lafia noted in his petition that despite pressure from Egbetokun to allegedly compromise the case, the court trial commenced “without hitches”.He, however added that upon Egbetokun’s appointment as the IGP on the 19th June, 2023, he seized the “opportunity to obstruct the course of justice”.
He noted that, in the course of the trial, the victim was led in evidence by the Police prosecutor, ASP Edwin Ochayi, and that she estified of her “horrifying experience in the hand of the Defendant, Mr. Kumar, exhibiting pictorial evidence showing bruises on her private part amongst other evidence presented before the Court.
“At the close of the Prosecution’s case, the Defense filed a no-case submission. In essence, the import of a no case submission is a persuasion by the Defense to the court, submitting that the prosecution is unable to adduce enough evidence linking the Defendant to the commission of the crime to warrant his full trial”.
Shocked at the no-case submission by the defence, the judge dismissed the submission of the defense, and ordered the Defendant to enter his defense based on the prima facie evidence before the court, noted the police AIG.
“Rather than entering his defense as ruled by the Court, the Defense took steps to shield the defendant from justice through a frivolous petition to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) on a matter already before the court. This action was encouraged by the Commissioner of Police Legal, CP Ehiozoba Ehiede and IGP Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector-General of Police.
“Consequently, on July 17th, 2024, the unthinkable happened where the Prosecutor ASP Edwin Ochayi was ordered by the Commissioner of Police Legal, CP Ehiozoba Ehiede, acting on the directive of IGP Kayode Egbetokun to terminate the case before the court. It is on the strength of this that the Prosecutor informed the Court on 26th July, 2024, that the IGP had ordered the withdrawal of the case under the pretext of conducting further investigation by the Police Legal Department.
“This action was ostensibly taken to aid the suspect in arresting the case, thus, facilitating the injustice meted to the victim by the defendant, Mr. Kumar Gurav. (Attached and marked as ‘A’ is the police signal directing the prosecutor to withdraw the case file from the court).
“It is this unusual and disturbing development that caused Counsel to the nominal complainant to reach out to my humble self and report the development to me. On the weight of this, I summoned the prosecutor, ASP Edwin Ochayi who briefed me on the directive of IGP Kayode Egbetokun to terminate the case despite the ongoing trial and evidence adduced before the court. Based on these facts, I drew the attention of IGP Kayode Egbetokun to this seeming violation of the law and obstruction of justice, allegedly attributed to him. The IGP feigned ignorance of the development and summoned the CP Legal, CP Ehiozoba Ehiede who confirmed the termination of the matter from the High Court of Benue State on the IGP’s instruction.
“The CP legal reminded the IGP that the withdrawal and termination of the case was on the weight of a petition written by the suspect (Kumar Gaurav) after which the IGP approved the withdrawal of the matter from the court. Shocked by this abuse of office at the highest level, I implored IGP Kayode Egbetokun to reconsider reversing this unlawful directive that has the consequences of causing grave injustice to the victim. This persuasion fell on deaf ears, despite several visits by me, reminding the IGP on the need to ensure justice is done for the victim but his body language suggested otherwise. Having realized the IGP’s unwillingness and reluctance to reverse his directive, I was left with no other choice than to keep my distance from the matter so as not to incur the wrath of IGP Kayode Egbetokun”.
AIG Lafia, who lamented that the rape victim has not only been frustrated by the Nigeria’s Justice System, having lost confidence in the Nigeria Police, has petitioned the Hon. Attorney-General of Benue State “to re-open prosecution against the Defendant based on her convincing belief that the IGP and his Police are compromised. IG Lafia has declared that Egbetokun’s “pretext in calling for the review of the case is nothing but a smokescreen to shield the suspect from prosecution and subsequent punishment by way of conviction. In all intent and purposes, an honest review of a case file may be conducted without termination or withdrawal of the matter before the court. It requires just a copy of the duplicate case file for such a review, while the matter would still be ongoing in court, but in this instant case, the original case file was retrieved and the criminal proceedings before the court were illegally aborted by the action of IGP Egbetokun”.
“Probably frustrated by this action, the trial Judge of the High Court of Benue State, Makurdi, his Lordship, Honorable Justice T. A. Kume, discharged and acquitted the Defendant without entering his defense. The action of the judge can be said to have been catalyzed by the corruption and abuse of office by IGP Kayode Egbetokun. This development which aided the Defendant in evading justice is not only a sad commentary on our criminal justice system but a pointer to the impunity in which IGP Kayode Egbetokun runs the Police Force with so much faith in the deficiency of the system and in his relationship with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has been his long time boss since 1999, when he (the IGP) served as his Chief Security Officer while he was Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria.
“Assuming without conceding that the retrieval of the case file was in good faith, the Police Legal department ought to have contacted the victim (nominal complainant) or the counsel to the victim and availed them with the petition of the Defendant to enable her respond, but she was never invited to come before the Legal Department for her own side of the story to ensure an unbiased review. This was not done, with deliberate intention to obstruct the course of justice ab initio. In hindsight, any review on a matter before a court of competent jurisdiction is unlawful and therefore sub-judice. It is unheard of for the Police to withdraw a matter before a court where a prima facie case has been established against the Defendant standing trial before it under the pretext of a review”.
The action of Egbetokun in the handling of the rape matter is tainted with corruption and subversion of justice. Lafia noted in his petition that the prosecutor, ASP Edwin Ochayi, who worked diligently and secured ruling in favor of the Police, dismissing the defendant’s no-case submission, was transferred to Niger State Command as a punitive measure.
“This punitive measure was taken to punish the Prosecutor, similar to the IGP’s orchestrated victimization against my humble self by way of blocking my merited elevation from the rank of Assistant Inspector-General of Police to that of Deputy Inspector-General of Police and instigating several negative social media reports against my hard earned reputation, even when they were all proven to be lies, in order to blackmail me into silence”.
Instead of commending the team of investigators on the rape case, and the team’s refusal to be bribed with the sum of N100 million from the suspect, AIG Lafia accused the IGP of setting out to victimize them, adding, “The reason for this is very obvious and the guess is for everyone to allude to what might have likely transpired between the Defendant and the IGP regarding the 100 Million bribe offer rejected by I and the team.
“It is also disheartening to mention here that despite the professionalism displayed by the team and ASP Edwin Ochayi and the sacrifices made, the IGP chose the ignoble path of further damaging the already fragile reputation of the Force due to his moral and material corruption. In addition to these sacrifices, the cost and expenses incurred in the course of the investigation, which includes medical examination expenses, transportation of the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) and the Prosecutor to and from Makurdi, Benue state, the venue of the outrageous crime, their feeding and hotel accommodation were borne from my meagre salary, without any effort by IGP Kayode to fund the expenses incurred in the course of the investigation”.
