Lagos task force suspends paramilitary officer for extortion

The Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences Unit, popularly known as task force has suspended a paramilitary officer of the agency for extorting money from an arrested traffic offender in Ikorodu.
 
Narrating details of the incident, chairman of the task force, Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), said the suspension became imperative following complaints against the officer on the social media and subsequent investigation of the accused.
 
Egbeyemi said investigations revealed that the officer, Ikuburuju Alex, negotiated and extorted the sum of N30,000 from the owner of an impounded vehicle who committed a traffic offence by plying the ‘BRT’ lane around Agric bus-stop in Ikorodu.
 
He stated that “on that day, I was having a lecture with all my police officers at Bolade before the indicted paramilitary officer went and carried out the shady deal, knowing fully well there will not be any police officer on ground at Ikorodu.”
 
The indicted paramilitary officer, popularly called ‘Iku’ confessed to collecting N30,000 before the release of the impounded vehicle to the owner. He promised to be of good character, henceforth, if pardoned.
 
According to Egbeyemi, the action of the officer was disgraceful and did not justify the training, motivation as well as huge investment by the government to engender excellent performance of staff during the agency’s operations.

Egbeyemi also confirmed that a senior police officer, who led the team that impounded the vehicle, has been redeployed to another unit of the agency due to inadequate supervision of his subordinates.

“Members of the public should not hesitate to report to the agency any officer found misbehaving in the course of discharging his/her duties for appropriate sanction and discipline,” he said.