The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Police

  • Residents accuse police of profiting from Mushin gang wars

    Residents accuse police of profiting from Mushin gang wars

    Some residents of Mushin, Lagos, have accused the police of profiting from the frequent gang wars in their area.

    The police, they alleged, have been extorting them under the guise of quelling the riots.

    The clashes have become a ploy for the police, particularly those attached to Olosan Divisional Headquarters, to round up traders, passers-by and artisans at spots within the area, handcuff them, bundle them into patrol vans, take them to their stations and make them part with amounts ranging between N5,000 and N10,000”.

    Comrade Daniel Oguine of Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), said efforts to stop  human rights abuses by the police failed.

    He said: “I have been involved as a member and lately secretary of CDHR in campaigns against abuses by the police but the efforts seem to be getting us nowhere. The more complaints we come up with, the more we have to deal with.

    “As a member of Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), I have challenged the police openly and many times. In one of our meetings, I gave them four different incidences involving the police and their illegal arrests of people.

    “There also was the case of three persons picked up at Papa Ajao. They accused them of wandering. I asked them when they were found wandering and I was told ’11:30 in the morning. Does a person wander in daytime?.

    “There was another case, I was sure none of those people would have paid less than N5,000 before regaining freedom”.

    An artisan (name withheld), said the police knew those behind the unrest but would only go after the ‘innocent.’

    He said he was arrested yesterday while cleaning his shop, handcuffed and taken to the police station where he paid N5000 for his release.

    “We have to act fast in this area. They come everyday to round us up, bundle us into their patrol vans for no just cause. Each time like this, we lose money to them.

    “As we are speaking, go to Daleko in Mushin here, just before the bridge. They have turned the place to a permanent toll gate where they collect toll from motorists who they take to their stations without reasons.

    “The police know the notorious spots including Alasalatu, Idi-Oro, Idi Araba, Fadeyi, and Itire Road. They will never go there to make arrests. They are always around Olufunmilayo, Aromire, Oniyide, Iyala, Folarin, Oduduwa, Alaafia and other such areas where no problem exists. We are tired here,”he said.

     

  • Ekiti police: we’ve rearrested 110 inmates of prison

    Ekiti police: we’ve rearrested 110 inmates of prison

    Ekiti State Police yesterday confirmed the re-arrest of 110 inmates who last year escaped from the Ado Ekiti prison break.

    Police spokesman Albert Adeyemi, over 30 suspected armed robbers were also arrested last year.

    ”We have put in place many strategies which include ensuring that the residents arme themselves with the numbers of the CP and other personnel to enable quick reach when in distress”, he said.

    Police Commissioner Taiwo Lakanu said more pin downs and foot patrol operations had been intensified in some satellite towns within Ado Ekiti Metropolis and remote areas that are not motorable to complement the 24-hour patrol on highways and inner cities by his men.

  • Don’t bribe police, CP tells agents

    The Commissioner of Police in charge of Western Ports, Mrs Hilda Ibifuro Harrison, has urged the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) to report any police officer who demands bribe.

    Speaking during her visit to ANLCA national secretariat, Mrs Harrison said she was not happy that ANLCA members accused some of her officers of demanding as much as N25,000 bribe before allowing them to move their goods out of the ports.

    To show her readiness to deal with the situation, she gave ANLCA members her private mobile numbers, and directed the clearing agents to shun any request for bribe from her officers.

    “Until some persons are taught lessons, they don’t ever change, and you are the people to assist me do my job, not when the case has passed, but when they are right in the act, making the demand for corruption, I promise you that I will act.

    “If you have any case of injustice, report to me and I will take it up, but the problem is that a lot of you fraternise with my police men to sweep these things under the carpet and that is why they come to you again and again.

    “I urge you not to fraternise with the bad eggs in the Nigerian police come out and let us fight the fight of bribery together and we will achieve its,” she said.

     

  • Polls: CNPP makes case for police

    Five weeks to the presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan is yet to release funds to the police for logistics, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has said.

    The CNPP, after an emergency meeting with top police officers in Abuja at the weekend, appealed to Jonathan to, “in the collective interest of our dear fatherland, fund the police forthwith to enable them fulfil their statutory role of protecting the electoral officials and their materials.

    “Imagine the mayhem, which will manifest at many polling centres and voting points if the police force is under-equipped,” it said.

    The coalition threatened to “embark on mass action if the police force is deliberately underfunded, especially as regards the elections”.

  • Atiku urges police on Falaki’s murder

    Atiku urges police on Falaki’s murder

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has urged the police to provide explanations on the circumstances that led to the murder of Prof. Ahmed Falaki of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

    He said in a statement by his media office in Abuja yesterday that “the explanation given thus far about how the leading Professor of Agriculture died under police custody falls short of logical assimilation.”

    According to the statement, the account given by the police on the circumstances that led to the death of Prof. Falaki, a scholar and Africa’s leading authority in Agriculture, is an embarrassment to the police.

    “It is particularly distasteful and confounding that the police will confuse the identity of a personality such as Prof. Falaki as a member of the Boko Haram sect.

    “In the manner that Prof. Falaki was killed, it is not in doubt that he had believed that the police station was a sanctuary of safety for him from the jungle justice he was receiving in the hands of locals, who had mistaken him for a member of the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

    “That men of the Nigeria Police will stand and become witnesses to murder, and even allow the police station to become the theatre of jungle justice, is a very disturbing narrative about the circumstance in which Prof Falaki was killed.

    “Such a narrative is an embarrassment to the professional integrity of the Nigeria Police and it is wholesomely unacceptable. The leadership of the Police must commission a thorough investigation into the circumstances in which Prof. Falaki was killed.”

    The former Vice President, who extolled the virtues of the late Africa’s leading professor of Agriculture, described his death as a huge loss to the intellectual community in Africa.

  • IGP angry at police officers’ strike threat

    IGP angry at police officers’ strike threat

    The Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has expressed anger over the threat by some officers to embark on strike for unpaid allowances.

    Abba’s annoyance came following a media report with the headline: “Policemen threaten strike over unpaid salaries”.

    A statement yesterday by the Force Spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu, explained that the IGP was miffed that officers did not recourse to approved channels to air their perceived grievances.

    It stated: “It is pertinent to state that the leadership of the Nigeria Police is mindful of its responsibility towards the welfare of the workforce; part of which is promotion and recognition of hard work.

    “As is expected, every promotion attracts some financial benefits, and which have been deeply considered in the course of processing and approving the promotions.”

    The IGP, however, explained that the police was working with relevant government departments and agencies to effect the payment of the promotion arrears, adding that all promoted officers have been enjoying the salary attached to their new ranks since 2015.

    “It needs be stated for the umpteenth time that the Nigeria Police is founded on the bedrock of discipline and loyalty. The police regulation has provided enough windows for aggrieved officers to ventilate their grievances,” the statement added.

    The police chief drew the officers’ attention to the consequences of breaching extant rules and regulations of the force.

    Pledging his commitment to reposition the welfare of the Force, Abba said: “I wish to use this medium to restate my commitment to the welfare of officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force”.

  • Oyo APC petitions police

    Oyo APC petitions police

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has petitioned the commissioner of police, following an attack on the convoy of the wife of the governor, Mrs Florence Ajimobi, in Ibadan, the state capital.

    The party alleged that some political thugs believed to be working for a former governor waylaid the governor’s wife, who was returning from an engagement and caught up with the occupants of the last two cars in the convoy.

    In a statement by its Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, the APC alleged that some thugs on the ex-governor’s payroll led the attacks, resulting in the destruction of two of the vehicles in Mrs. Ajimobi’s convoy.

    He gave the names of the perpetrators as Ekugbemi, Agunbiade and Saidi (aka SP).

    “It is not surprising that the ex-governor and his cohorts are doing everything possible to disrupt the existing peace and tranquility in the state.

    “We call on security agents to bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to justice and keep a tab on all the politicians in the state so that the people can continue to enjoy peace.”

  • Police arrest three herdsmen for ‘robbery’

    •Three robbery suspects arrested in Ogun 

    Three Fulani herdsmen have been arrested for alleged robbery in Sabo, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

    Haruna Ibrahim, Usman Burani and Haruna Usman were arrested in Sabo after they allegedly robbed residents of Atoba Estate in Sabo.

    The police alleged that the suspects were behind the attacks on commuters on Ayetoro Road in Yewa North and Igboora area.

    It was gathered that the residents of the estate had placed the herdsmen under surveillance. When they were sighted around the neighbourhood, the residents alerted the police.

    Police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi said community leaders in Atoba Estate contacted the Divisional Police Officer, Gbenga Megbope, at the Ilupeju-Sabo Police Division, who led a team of anti-robbery operatives to arrest the suspects.

    Adejobi said the herdsmen later led the police to their hideout in Igbo Olodumare forest on Igboora Road, where two others were apprehended.

    Items recovered from them included cartridges, cutlasses, charms and dummy guns, among others.

    Also, three robbery suspects were arrested in a joint security operation between policemen and soldiers (OP MESA) attached to the 35 Artillery Brigade, Abeokuta.

    Amuche Chukwuemeka(22), a graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Imo State; Blessing Edottie(26) from Bayelsa State and Santos Peter(25) from Delta State  allegedly snatched a Toyota Highlander at Festac Town, Lagos on February 4.

    Adejobi, in a statement, said the joint operations team seeing the suspicious movement of the suspects stopped their vehicle and upon interrogation, they were found to be fleeing.

    He said: “The suspects kidnapped the owner of the vehicle and dropped him on the road, having compelled him to deactivate the vehicle’s security device.

    “The vehicle was later demobilised and it stopped on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, prompting the suspects to hire the services of a technician to start the engine. They continued their escape movement, until they were intercepted and arrested.

    “The Acting Commissioner of Police, Haliru Gwandu, has instructed that the case should be transferred to the Lagos State Command, where the robbery took place.”

  • Two killed as police repel attack in Kano

    •Two suspects arrested

    The Kano State Police Command has said it killed two suspected insurgents at Kibiya, about 60 kilometres from Kano city, when the terrorists attacked a police division in the area.

    The police said the casualties were among the six suspected Boko Haram members who stormed the police station on two motorcycles.

    Police spokesman, Musa Magaji Majia, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), told our reporter yesterday that one of the gunmen was killed in an exchange of fire while the other was lynched by the residents as the other gunmen attempted to escape.

    Majia said the incident happened at 5.30pm on Saturday.

    The police spokesman said the police repelled the insurgents.

    According to him, two of the gunmen were arrested and were assisting police investigation.

    Majiya said: “No policeman was killed or injured during the incident.”

    The spokesman said the gunmen abandoned one of their motorcycles before fleeing.

    He said security had since been tightened in the area, adding that the neighbouring states had been alerted to arrest the fleeing hoodlums.

  • Dismissed police officer ‘steals’ N875 from church

    Dismissed police officer ‘steals’ N875 from church

    A dismissed police corporal charged before a Mushin Magistrate’s Court in Lagos for allegedly N875 from “petition box” of a catholic church.

    The box is for holding prayer requests.

    The defendant, Patrick Nkanu (45), was arrested by military personnel inside the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (NAFRC), Oshodi, Lagos on January 11, after he allegedly broke into Saint Martin De Porres Catholic Church “to steal” the money.

    He was arraigned before Magistrate Abegunde Davies on two counts of sacrilege and stealing contrary to Sections 309 and 285 (5) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos, 2011.

    Prosecuting Inspector Ezekiel Ayorinde told the court that the defendant committed the offence around 7:50pm.

    He said the soldiers on duty discovered the chapel door was unusually locked and on opening it, they caught Nkanu opening the petition box with weapons.

    The defendant, who claimed he was stranded and needed money to return to his base at Badagry, pleaded not guilty.

    He was granted N5000 bail, with two sureties in the like sum who must provide one-year tax verification. The matter was adjourned till March 11.