Lagos police command returns N705,000 to owner

A Civil Society Organisation, The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), has commended the Lagos State Police Command for returning the sum of N705,000 extorted from one Kareem Jamiu, by five policemen,

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the commendation was made in a statement issued and signed on Saturday in Lagos by the Executive Director of the group, Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma.

According to Nwanguma, Jamiu was invited on Friday by the command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Bala Elkana, and handed the N705,000 extorted from him by the five officers back to him.

“Thank you, Lagos State Police Commissioner of Police and PRO.

“Unfortunately, there are many police officers on the prowl, who go about in the name, or under the guise of one IGP squad or the other; harassing and robbing innocent citizens.

“RULAAC will continue to be on the alert, beaming its searchlight on such officers to expose them.

“We will continue to work for and with police officers, who do their work professionally and humanely.

“The police work may be under very difficult conditions, which often make them prone to misbehaviour, yet this does not justify extreme criminal conducts,” he said.

Nwanguma assured that they would continue to advocate for improvement in the working conditions of the police as means of fighting corruption and humanising the service, while exposing those who choose to abuse their authority.

NAN recalls that on Wednesday, the command’s spokesperson confirmed the arrest of the five policemen for allegedly engaging in hostage taking and robbing Jamiu on Monday at Sagamu, Ogun.

It gathered that on Monday, Jamiu, who lives at NNPC, Sagamu, was arrested by a team of police officers who claimed to have come from the Police Headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos.

The suspected officers arrested him over allegations that he was a cultist and a ‘Yahoo Yahoo Boy’, demanding the sum of N100,000 for his release.

Jamiu was said to have called his friends who contributed the sum for him and then, with the police officers, he went to an ATM machine, where he withdrew the money and gave to the officers.

The officers, thereafter, asked him to show them the balance in his account and being under pressure, he did as he was told.

They saw more money in the account, of which the victim claimed was proceeds from his mother’s sale of their family land.

Jamiu claimed the officers drove him to Ikeja, somewhere opposite the Police Headquarters, where they forced him to release his ATM card and to disclose his secret pin.

They then used a POS to withdraw the additional sum of N605,000 from his account.

He said he pleaded with them that the money belonged to his mother, but they threatened to beat him, stressing that although they claimed they were from the headquarters, they never took him inside any police station.

The victim said the officers only parked inside a primary school compound, where he was forced to write a statement.