Lagos DPO Slumps, Dies In Office

(Photo: Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti)

The Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Ijede Police Station,
Nwaoha Uzoma, has died.

PUNCH reports that Uzoma's corpse was found in his office on Thursday,
a day after he entered and locked himself in.

It was gathered that after he did not pick his calls, anxious
relatives and policemen in the station broke the door open and saw his
lifeless body on the floor.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Uzoma, a Superintendent of Police, was
formerly heading the Anthony Police Division, before he was posted to
Ijede, in the Ikorodu area, early in December.

PUNCH correspondent gathered that the deceased, who was married with
children, was in his fifties.

A police source said, "The DPO was posted from Anthony to Ijede around
December 5. At that time, he had an illness, which was not very
serious. He was a friendly man who could sometime become angry and
that's when you offend him. But once he showed his anger and you
begged him, he forgave and that would end it.

"On the day of the incident, he entered his office and shut himself
in. People didn't suspect anything because he sometimes slept there.
People didn't see him come out throughout that day and then the next
day, they called his phone repeatedly but he didn't pick it.

"That was how people became suspicious and broke the door. They found
his corpse on the floor."

The police were said to have evacuated the corpse and deposited it in
a private mortuary.

Another police source, who claimed to be close to the deceased, told
our correspondent that he saw him few days to his death and he was
looking healthy.

He said, "I still saw him at a meeting where he was all smiles and
didn't show any sign of sickness. I was told he slumped and died in
his office."

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Nwosu,
while confirming the incident on Sunday, explained that the police had
yet to ascertain the cause of death.

He said, "On December 25, at about 8am, SP Nwaoha Uzoma, was found
dead in his office at the Ijede Police Station. His corpse was removed
and deposited at St. Raphael Hospital morgue for autopsy."
--PUNCH