The Lagos State Police Command has said that said that it has arrested two of its officers found to have been consistently involved in harassing innocent citizens under the bogus allegation that they are Yahoo Boys and will follow them to Automated Teller Machine (ATM) to extort money from them.
The State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni who made this disclosure at a press briefing in Lagos on Monday said that the two policemen were arrested two weeks ago and upon investigation, they were discovered to be more or less impersonators.
According to him,”We have also looked into their cases, and necessary disciplinary procedures had been taken and because these two policemen wielded weapons when they marched innocent citizens to the ATM to collect money, we have taken them into custody and to show example to policemen and dismissed policemen who are all over extorting innocent Nigerians to demonstrate that we are meant to take things seriously.
“The two policemen, after necessary approval from the Force Headquarters, will be charged for demanding with menaces and armed robbery. The statement we want to make through this is that the policeman who have chosen to flagrantly disobey the charge by the Inspector-General of Police that all our actions should conform with democratic principles and international norms and practices, to demonstrate to other policemen that it is not just going to be talk, talk, talk, that their act of misconduct and their criminal acts will be met with serious action”.
He therefore warned others who were using police uniform to commit crimes in Lagos state to stop forthwith reminding those were carrying out act of impersonation in the name of the police that the command would not relent in ensuring that it put a complete stop to those criminal acts and professional misconduct.
The Police Chief further disclosed that the command arrested two other policemen who had in the course of illegal duty fired indiscriminately at an innocent housewife around Ajao Estate one week ago for an act bothering on attempted murder.
He observed that their arrest was to demonstrate that the Force under the leadership of IGP Ibrahim Idris was ready to flush out bad eggs from the Force.
He said,”Those two policemen, after getting the necessary administrative consent for their suspension and interdiction, will also be prosecuted for attempted murder because of the unprofessional manner with which they used their weapons.
“We have a case of defilement involving two policemen, they have also been taken into custody and after necessary administrative process, they will also be made to face the full wrath of the law”.
He however assured the general public that the command was prepared to ensure that the philosophy of the Inspector-General of Police to stamp out all act of professional misconduct, all act of corruption and all act of criminality by serving police officers would be pursued with the vigor it deserved.
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