Lagos Police officers, their named withheld, attached to Oko-Oba Divisional Police Station located at new Oko-Oba area of Agege, Lagos State, have hijacked the Roller Machine used for construction of road last night of Thursday (12th Day Of August, 2021), while coming from site of ongoing road construction.

The Police officers attacked the driver of the six tyres Carrier Vehicle and Roller Machine with two casual workers that were following the machine from the site of road construction because they refused to give them bribe requested for by telling them that they were casual workers to their boss and they were coming from road construction site and heading to park the six tyres Carrier Vehicle with Roller Machine at Public Works Corporation (PWD) office located at Berger area of the State.

The said bribe collector Police officers attacked the causal workers illegally at Fagba area of the State and hijacked the six tyres Carrier Vehicle that was used to carry the Roller Machine and drove it to Oko-Oba Divisional Police Station with no offence than refusing to give them the bribe they requested from the Causal workers.

The names of the driver and two Causal workers which Police officer attacked and hijacked the six tyres Carrier Vehicle and Roller Machine from were; Joshua,Fatai and Alfred respectively, adding that all efforts by their boss and owner of Roller Machine, Alhaji Morufu Olayiwola ( aka Alhaji-Roller) with Phone Number:- (+234 8056142576 / +234 7038728381), to appeal to the Police officer through his Causal workers who followed the Roller Machine and Carrier Vehicle to Oko-Oba Divisional Police Station, went deaf ear of the said Police officers by insisting that they would collect sum of N150,000 before they could release the Machine to them.

All efforts by the Convener, Save Lagos Group (SLG), Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman, to appeal to the Police officer to release the Roller Machine and the six tyres Carrier Vehicle to the owner last night went to the back of their ears by explaining to the Police officers that those Casual workers were coming from the site of the road construction to park the vehicle at PWD Yard at Berger area of the State.

Comrade Sulaiman stated that bribe collector Police officers action necessitated this public outcry to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu and concerned authorities to call on DPO Oko-Oba Divisional Police Station to release the illegally hijacked Carrier Vehicle and Roller Machine to the owner unconditionally because they would use the road construction machine at the construction site on Friday morning for continuation of their work at the site.

The rights activist then maintained that if the Divisional Police Station Officer refused to release the Construction Machine to the owner for onward continuation of their work at the site, Save Lagos Group (SLG) would not hesitate to write the nation’s Police authority to detail what transpired between the Police officers attached to the Divisional Station and the owner of the Construction Machine.

He described the action of the police officer as illegal, unprofessional and daylight robbery, calling for disciplinary action against the erring Police officers in order to serve as deterrent to other officers that might have the same mindset and idiosyncratic tendency of criminality constabulary mentality.

He alleged that most of the officers attached to the Oko-Oba Divisional Police Station including their Divisional Police Officer (DPO) were full of atrocities of illegal arrest and detention, extortion and other vices, recalling that Save Lagos Group (SLG) needs to call on the authority of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to caution the Station former DPO, one Mr. Kingsley Anyanwu with
Phone number: (+234 8032168417), over illegal arrest and extortion of Lagosians.
During this period of Coronavirus popularly code named COVID-19 for detaining two Lagosians at their custody against the directive of the then Inspector General of Police (IGP), Muhammed Adamu, during the wake of Pandemic period.

Giving the name of the two persons detained illegally by the Police as; Ayodele Olagoke, a student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan and Ayoololuwa Bamise, by not allowing them to write any statement for seven days in their custody.

Explaining the remote cause of the matter to the leaders and members of the Save Lagos Group (SLG), a family member of the suspects, Mr. Olumakinwa Adedotun Babatunde with phone number:-(+234 8066999356), disclosed that “the owner of the Car, Honda’s End of Discussion, one Mr. Ismail Tella with Phone Number:-(+234 7038758241), used the Car to send the alleged suspects on an errand in the town.

“On getting to the same FAGBA Bus-Stop, they met the Police road block and in an attempt to stop, one woman Police Officer, Inspector Joy, jumped in front of the Car which made the vehicle to hit her and immediately, she was taken to the hospital of her choice, Hamkad Hospital located at “Olawale Cole Street, off Risikatu Majaro Street, U-turn Bus-Stop, Abule-Egba”.

“Being her(Inspector Joy) hospital used for National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), after her treatment and discharged as well, the family of the suspects paid for the Ten percent (10%) of the Hospital bill and also gave her sum of Fourty Thousand Naira(N40,000) with food stuff and Beverages as being demanded for”.

Meanwhile, the owner of the Car, Mr. Tella plead to an Assistant Commissioner of Police(ACP) Agboola attached to the State Police Headquarters in Ikeja, to help them prevail on the then DPO Anyanwu to release the two suspects on bail with the impounded Car but it was like putting Petrol on fire.

According to Tella, while approaching the DPO on Sunday 5th March, 2020, he got the three slapped on his face in return from DPO, for having the audacity to inform the superior officer of the Command on the subject matter, adding that the DPO promised to give the Car for a driver to use it for Uber transport after end of the stay at home order by the Federal Government.

While the leadership of the Save Lagos Group (SLG) through its Convener, Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman, trying to appeal to the DPO Anyanwu on the matter to look into the congnisance of the present situation in the country then as regard the global pandemic, in respect of the directive of the IGP Adamu.

But DPO Anyanwu shun all the appeal by saying that he would not respect any rights of the detained suspects, not to talk of IGP Adamu’s directive on the Pandemic facing the land during that time and it was later discovered that he wants thier family to pay sum of Two Hundred Thousand Naira (N200,000) for the release of the two suspects and the impounded Honda’s End of the Discussion Car with the Plate number:- AKD 79 BF at the Police Station.

According to the then Investigation Police Officer (IPO) named Toyin with Phone Number:- (+234 9096991624), who had been working with human face to ensure that the matter did not go out of hand, maintained that the prompt response of the family of the detained suspects were encouraging on the treatment of their woman officer.

Signed:
Comrade ADENIYI, Alimi SULAIMAN
Convener, Save Lagos Group (SLG)
+234 8038591504/ +234 8022697573