THE Lagos State Police Commissioner, Idowu Owohunwa, has ordered the immediate removal of the Divisional Police Officer of the Meiran Police Station in the state over extortion.
A statement by the command spokesperson, Ben Hundeyin, on Wednesday, October 18, accused the DPO of infractions summed up as “leadership dereliction and supervisory ineptitude.”
The Punch had reported that a phone engineer, Ibrahim Saliu, alleged that some policemen attached to the Meiran Police Station extorted N200,000 from him on Saturday, October 14.
Saliu recounted that the trouble began when the Police apprehended him and his brother, Olaiya Murtala, for failing to produce an identification card or receipts for the iPhones found with his brother.
Saliu said he had dispatched his brother to his store with six iPhones. However, during a random stop-and-search, the Police intercepted them and escorted them to the station.
He further alleged that the DPO and his officers connived to extort him after removing the warranty stickers on his phones.
“The DPO took the iPhones, removed the warranty stickers on them, and declared that my brother and I are thieves and armed robbers.
“The next thing I heard was the DPO giving them an order to detain us and that we would be locked up for stealing and armed robbery. We were surprised that we started begging,” he said.
Saliu added that the DPO instructed them to pay N500,000 cash before they could be released.
Despite their pleas, Salihu and his brother eventually negotiated and settled for N200,000, as demanded by the Police.
Reacting to the incident via X, the command spokesperson noted that the Lagos Police Commissioner ordered the immediate removal of the DPO for leadership dereliction and supervisory ineptitude, adding that all the officers involved had been identified and were undergoing trial.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M
Enemies of progress,that man no dey take shit.
Pure lie.the man no dey take nonsense
I am really happy this DPO has finally been arrested, the extortion at Meiran Police station is too much, the officers there behave as if they are above the law. They smoke and drink different types of drugs at night in front of their station, by 10pm they start extorting motorist. That Police station is a business center.
Weld one Mr Commissioner of police I wish same can be done to ota efun police station osogbo.