In a police bulletin on Monday, the Nigerian police said they have dismissed three officers attached to Lagos State Police Command for extorting residents.
The bulletin disclosed the identities of the culprits as Okelue Nkemeonye (Inspector with Number 136005), Braimoh Sunday (Sergeant with Number 355897) and Yusuf Olukoga (Sergeant with Number 359928).
The dismissed officers worked with the Area “N” Command, Ijede-Ikorodu.
Their dismissal followed an orderly room trial at the Zone Two Command Headquarters, Onikan-Yaba, Lagos, the police said.
The men faced two charges, and were found guilty on both.
The bulletin explained that on June 21 the Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) received a complaint via WhatsApp which states thus:
“My name is (withheld), I went to the bank this morning to deposit money to a Company’s account (name withheld) but there was no network so I deposited the money into my personal account to do the transfer to the account later. When I came out of the bank, a car packed full of some SARS policemen wearing black cloth with anti-robbery squad written at the back. I was told to enter the vehicle with a gun pointed at me. They collected my mobile phone and asked me what I do for a living I told them that I had just finish my youth service and I am leaving with my brother and I pointed my brother shop for them to stop by and see him because he was the one that sent me to the bank, they refused to wait and they did not allow me to pick my calls and call out. I received an alert on my phone with the money I went to deposit they search my phone on seeing the alert they started roping that am a yahoo boy telling me that I would pay them 1Million, one of them slapped me, they drove us around places in Ikorodu, ijede, gberigbe, ibeshe, igbe, ikpakodo, itaelewa, agric and first gate harassing people, moving them in the car and collecting huge amount from them. They collected N50, 000.00 from me but I notice that each junctions that we reached people were hailing there leader by his nickname (OJ. Ojewunmi). And one by name Austin slapped me. They picked me up around 9am and dropped me 6pm in the evening after collecting money from me. They even use my account to collect money from the guys that I met in the car and used my ATM to withdraw from them.”
Police said an investigation team was dispatched to Ikorodu where the three dismissed policemen including an assistant superintendent of police, Bayo Obadia, who led the team, were apprehended.
Preliminary investigations confirmed the allegations against the officers.
The police also said they found out that the four police officers who were armed on the day of the incident falsely paraded themselves as operatives of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), when they were not.
“Investigation also shows that the officers extorted a total sum of N200,000 from the young men who they tagged ‘Yahoo Yahoo Boys’; the money was forced from them via N90,000 ATM withdrawal and N110,000 mobile bank money transfer to a third party account provided by the policemen. All the extorted N200, 000 was recovered by the PCRRU Investigators,” the bulletin said.
Mr. Obadiah, who led the team, was issued a query. His response and the query were forwarded to the office of the Force Secretary, Force Headquarters, Abuja, from where it would proceed to the Police Service Commission as required by police regulations, police said.
“The Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris has commended the complainant for coming forward to report the incident to PCRRU; the IGP has also said that all allegations of professional misconduct reported against any police officer would be treated in line with relevant laws and in keeping to the ‘Change Begins With Me Champaign’ of the Federal Government,” the bulletin added.
