Three policemen attached to the Area N Command, Ijede,
Ikorodu, Lagos State, have been dismissed from the Nigeria Police Force for
unlawful arrest and extortion.
The dismissed cops are Inspector Okelue Nkemeonye with
Administrative Police Number, 136005; Sergeant Braimoh Sunday, with Force
Number, 355897, and Yusuf Olukoga with F.No., 359928.
The former policemen
led by one Bayo Obadia, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, with AP No.,
98199, had reportedly paraded themselves as operatives of the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad on June 21, 2017.
It was said that the men stationed a van in front of a bank
in Ikorodu, where one of their victims, a graduate, had gone to deposit some
money.
On coming out of the bank, they collected his phone
and forced him to enter their van.
The graduate, in a petition written to the Public Complaint
Rapid Response Unit via its Whatsapp number, 08057000003,
stated that the policemen accused him of being a Yahoo boy (Internet
fraudster), and asked him to pay N1million.
The victim, whose identity was not disclosed, wrote, “I went
to the bank this morning (June 21) to deposit money to a company’s account, 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, I saw a van
with some SARS policemen inside.
“I was told to enter the vehicle at gunpoint. They collected
my mobile phone and asked me what I did for a living. I told them that I had
just finished my youth service and I was living with my brother. I pointed my
brother’s shop to 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 or make any call. I received an alert on my phone confirming the money I
went to deposit. They searched my phone and on seeing the alert, they said I
was a Yahoo boy, telling me that I would pay them N1million. One of
them slapped me.”
The victim said one of the cops beat him up and the team
eventually collected N50,000 from him.
He explained that some other persons were picked and falsely
tagged Yahoo Boys, adding that the team extorted money from them.
“They drove round places in Ikorodu, Ijede, Gberigbe,
Ibeshe, Ipakodo, Ita-Elewa, Agric and First Gate, harassing people and
extorting money from them. They collected N50,000 from me, but I noticed that
each junction that we reached, people were hailing their leader by his
nickname, OJ(Ojewunmi). One Austin slapped me. They picked me up around
9am and released me at about 6pm. They even used my account to collect money
from the guys that I met in the car and used my ATM card to withdraw the
money,” he said.
The PCCRU Commandant, ACP Abayomi Shogunle, said upon the
receipt of the victim’s complaint, a team was sent to the Area Command for
investigation, adding that they were found culpable.
Shogunle, in a statement on Monday, said, “PCRRU preliminary
investigation revealed that all the allegations contained in the Whatsapp message
actually happened.
“Also, the four police officers, who were armed on the day
of the incident, falsely paraded themselves as operatives of the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad despite not being posted to SARS by the police authorities.
“Investigation also showed 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.”
He said the erring policemen and exhibits recovered from
them, including a bank statement, were handed over to the Assistant
Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos, Ibrahim
Adamu, for further investigation and necessary disciplinary measures.
He said the outcome of the AIG’s investigation led to the
dismissal of the policemen.
The PCRRU commander stated that the move was in line with
the efforts of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to flush out
unethical officers in the force.
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