Posted by By Juliana Francis on
Officers, who are spearheading the war against corruption in Lagos, almost paid dearly with their lives recently, when they tried to dislodge some soldiers and policemen, who mounted a roadblock and were extorting money from motorists in the Dopemu area of the state.
Officers, who are spearheading the war against corruption in Lagos, almost paid dearly with their lives recently, when they tried to dislodge some soldiers and policemen, who mounted a roadblock and were extorting money from motorists in the Dopemu area of the state.
Following public complaints, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adewole Ajakaiye, sent the police monitoring unit led by Superintendent of Police, Mr. Olubunmi Osoko.
The team had hardly gone far, when they noticed about five soldiers and seven police men near Dopemu collecting money from commercial buses.
A source said: " The police were collecting the money from the drivers and handing them over to the soldiers for safe-keeping. They didn't know the OC, Mr. Osoko and his team had parked somewhere watching them. After verifying the complaints as being true, the OC walked up to them with his team. He identified himself. He held one of the policemen, who started shouting, ‘soldier save me! Soldier save me!
"Immediately one of the soldiers corked his gun and pointed it at the OC. Other policemen involved in the crime took the opportunity to run away. By then, people had started gathering. We were sure the soldiers would have opened fire, if not for the angry mob that had surrounded them. Some of them even pursued the policemen as they took to their heels. The soldier pointing the gun at the OC, made the escape easy for the men.
"The military hierarchy seriously needs to curb their men's excesses and advise them against extorting money from the public. We couldn't arrest them because they were soldiers, but we are going to deal with our men as usual. We do not cover or protect any policeman that commits such crime."
Recovered from the constable who was taken to the command headquarters was the sum of N190, but other money the men made for that day was with the soldiers. The arrested constable is now assisting the police to track his partners in crime.
Other arrests were made as the monitoring team later proceeded to the Festac area of Amuwo Odofin in Lagos. This time, it was the arrest of a female corporal and a constable, who were caught with N2,450.
Last week, about five policemen, all constables, were arrested with squeezed N20 notes, totalling N3,900 in the Oke-Odo area of Lagos. This group of policemen were said to be extorting N100 per commercial vehicle.