Published 26th Oct, 2023

By Daniel Ojukwu

On Saturday, Adeola Akinmola, a Lagos-based businesswoman, took to her X (formerly Twitter) page, @ade_authority, to express dissatisfaction over the service delivery of Naija Hair Factory, a hair vendor.

With attached screenshots of Instagram conversations between her and the company, Akinmola narrated how she gave three of her wigs to Naija Hair on October 13 to help revamp, and how they failed to deliver on time.

Four days after this post, Akinmola was sleeping in a police cell in Bariga, Lagos.

Naijahairfactory girl called me now calling me a “stupid fvcking fat bitch with hugly face and husband”

All I did was patronize this girl pic.twitter.com/dzmk96BoKE
— Techpreneur 👩‍💻💵 (@Ade_authority) October 20, 2023

What began as a fact-finding mission and invitation to the police station quickly turned sour as the police confiscated her personal effects, denied her lawyer access to her and locked her in a cell with other criminal suspects.

When she regained her freedom on Thursday morning, Akinmola told FIJ in a telephone interview that Esther Odunmorayo, owner of Naija Hair Factory, and the station’s DPO, planned her detention.

“I was just released a few minutes ago,” Akinmola told FIJ. “It was meant to be a dialogue. It was an honourable invitation, to start with, only for the lady to get there romancing the DPO, and they did not read my evidence or statement. The DPO just said they should charge me with cyberstalking and cyber bullying. Then they put me in the cell with criminals.”

When FIJ asked what Akinmola meant when she said Odunmorayo and the DPO were romancing, she said, “They were holding hands, hugging and all of that. Before he spoke with me about the incident, they came together.

“I got to the station around 2 pm, and we waited for the lady for over one hour. At about 6 pm, they took my things and detained me with criminals.

“This morning, they released me on bail and said they would invite me whenever they needed me. They did not ask me to sign anything or ask me to delete anything from social media. The lady called her dad and said her dad was going to call the DPO as well. My lawyer and husband were there, but they did not give them audience.”

FIJ called Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), for comments, but he did not take our calls. We also sent him a text message, but he had not responded as of press time.

Ojukwu is a reporter with FIJ in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.

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