The Nigeria Police Force are yet to take definite action one month after it was reported that two of their officers were caught on camera extorting motorists along Ijebu Ode/Ibadan Road in Ogun State.
The two officers, whose badge identified as Oyewole Afolabi and Eniola Olaiya, were caught by Premium Times collecting bribe from a bus driver who was conveying passengers to Ibadan from Ajah, Lagos State in May.
The officers were arbitrarily imposing demands on motorists whose vehicle licence or insurance papers were outdated or missing. Where all vehicle and driving credentials were intact, they found other ways of harassing and extorting road users.
When the medium forwarded multimedia evidence of the officersโ misconduct to Abayomi Shogunle, head of police complaints unit in Abuja, he promised to examine the images and issued a tracking number (PCRRU915475).
However, one month after the complaint was made and tracking number issued, the police is yet to take any definite action.
When the complaint unit was contacted on May 17, an officer who spoke with newsmen in a telephone interview said it was under investigation.
โThis very incident is still under investigation. We are still investigating it. You can call us tomorrow. Thank youโ.
On May 23, when we the complaint unit was called again to track the case, the officer who answered the call said that the unit engineer was working on the system and promised to get back to us which he failed to do.
When contacted again on June 11, we were informed that the last efforts made on the complaint were carried out on May 19.
โOur detective unit has been informed to look into the matter but I did not see their comment to know if they have looked into the matter or not,โ an officer said. โThe last comment on the system was on the 19th of May. I will advise that you call for further update so that I will contact our detectivesโ.
However all efforts to get the reaction of the police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, and the Head of Police Complaint Unit in Abuja, Mr Shogunle proved abortive as they both refused to answer several calls made to them. The duo also, did not respond to text messages sent to them.
