27th August, 2010
The police have arrested two persons in connection with the alleged attempted murder of Mr. Femi Otedola, Chairman of African Petroleum Plc, and six other persons.
Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, Inspector-General (IG) of Police, who disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday at a press conference, said the suspects were being interrogated by the police.
Onovo said that Otedola and the six other persons were trapped in the lift at the AP Plaza in Lagos on July 25, while on his way to an emergency meeting of the board of the company.
He said that some crucial decisions affecting the operations of the company were to be taken at the said meeting.
The IG explained that Otedola and his team entered an empty lift, but were trapped for more than two hours, adding that timely intervention saved the incident from being tragic.
“The chairman was ushered into an empty lift with six other members of his team. Soon after they entered the lift, all the seven occupants were trapped for over two hours,“he said.
Onovo said the case was initially investigated by the Lagos State Police Command before he directed that it should be taken over by the Force CID, Abuja for “discreet investigation.”
He said that the investigation led to the invitation of three technical elevator engineers, whose report after interrogation indicated that the lift was tampered with.