Lagos Police boss removes DPO over alleged extortion

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa has ordered the removal of the Divisional Police Officer of the Meiran Police Station in Lagos State over alleged extortion.

This followed an allegation of extortion by an engineer, Ibrahim Saliu against some policemen attached to the station.

Saliu accused the policemen of extorting N200,000 from him last Saturday after detaining him and his brother, Olaiya Murtala, for not providing an identity card or the receipts for the iPhones found with his brother. He said the the officers, alongside the station’s DPO, threatened his brother and himself with jail time should they fail to provide receipts for the phones.

According to Saliu, “the DPO took the iPhones, removed the warranty stickers, 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”.

Saliu disclosed that he was asked to make a N500,000 payment to secure their freedom, and that they agreed to N200,000, paid in cash per the officers’ order.

In a tweet on Wednesday, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Benjamin Hundeyin said that the Commissioner of Police has ordered the immediate removal of the Meiran Police Station DPO.

Hundeyin wrote: “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”.