The Lagos State police commissioner, Idowu Owohunwa, has ordered the immediate removal of the Divisional Police Officer of Meiran for ‘leadership dereliction and supervisory ineptitude’.
One Ibrahim Saliu had accused some policemen attached to the Meiran Police Station in the state of extorting N200,000 from him on Saturday.
According to The PUNCH the policemen detained him and his brother, Olaiya Murtala, for not providing an identity card or the receipts for the iPhones found with his brother.
He narrated, “I’m an engineer and I sell phones. On Saturday morning, I gave my brother five iPhones and keys to open the shop while I went to withdraw money from the bank and would join him later.
“About two hours later, he called that some policemen on patrol had collected the phones from him and taken him to the station.
“When I got there, the DPO asked me to produce my ID and the receipts for the phones. I told him I didn’t have them. I told him I sell phones, but he didn’t believe me. I then told him that though I didn’t have all the receipts, I could take them to my shop which was close by but they still refused.
“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.”
Saliu added that the DPO later asked them to pay N500,000 to secure their freedom, saying that they begged him until they settled for N200,000 which the policemen insisted must be paid in cash.
According to him, one of the policemen led him to a nearby POS operator where he withdrew N182,000 in addition to the N20,000 he had on him and handed it over to the policemen after which they were released.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, when contacted urged the complainant to get across to the Complaint Response Unit of the state police command and that the issue would be looked into.
He said, “If the allegation is proven to be true, that is wrong and unprofessional. In the meantime, I urge the complainant to get across to the Complaint Response Unit of the state police command and that issue will be looked into.”
However, Benjamin Hundeyin via his Twitter account, on Wednesday announced the removal of the police DPO.
He explained that all the officers involved had been identified and were at the command headquarters where their orderly room trial had commenced.
“CP Idowu Owohunwa has ordered the immediate removal of DPO Meiran for leadership dereliction and supervisory ineptitude.
“Meanwhile, all the officers involved have been identified and are currently at the Command headquarters where their orderly room trial has commenced,” he added.
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