Idowu Owohunwa, the police commissioner for Lagos State, has commanded the divisional police officer in Meiran to be fired right away for allegedly extorting N200,000 from a phone salesman.
The policemen have been identified and are currently on trial, according to Benjamin Hundeyin, a spokesman for the state police, who made the announcement on Wednesday via his X account.
Hundeyin shortly posted, “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.”
An engineer, Ibrahim Saliu, reported and accused some officers of the Meiran Police Station of extortion on Saturday. Saliu said he was detained alongside his brother, whose name is Olaiya Murtala, for not being able to provide an ID card or receipts for the phone found on Saliu’s brother.
According to Saliu, he said he sent his brother to shop with six sets of iPhones, but unfortunately, he got into a stop-and-search and was taken to the police station.
Saliu, said, “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 do 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.” He said.
Police extortions and brutality are common feature within the Nigerian Police firmament, and as the police tries to redeem its battered image, Nigerians are hopeful, that perpetrators of cases such as extortions, deliberate killings, abuse of authority and other similar cases within the police are brought tried and brought to justice.