Residents of Ojo, a Lagos suburb, have called on the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, CP, Zubairu Muazu, to come to their aid over alleged illegal arrest of innocent boys in the community. They also alleged that policemen are threatening to charge the innocent residents to court in a bid to further extort huge sums of money from them.
One of the residents, Mr. Udogwu, told the reporter, that his son, Kingsley Udogwu, was arrested on Friday, July 26, 2019, when he had gone to Alaba International Market in Ojo to buy his football jersey. He said his son had purchased the Jersey and boarded a bike to start returning home when policemen from Ira Police Post, under Ojo Police Station, arrested him and accused him of being an Internet fraudster.
He said: “They arrested my son when he was coming back from Alaba International Market where he had gone to buy his football Jersey. They took him to Ira Police Post, which is under Ojo Police Station. When I got there, and asked them what was his offence, they became very hostile. The officer in charge of the post, told me that when they stopped my son on the Okada, he gave his phone to another person and the person ran away. He said my son is an Internet fraudster but I refused to accept his allegation.
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“He demanded the sum of N50,000 from me before they would release him. I told him I didn’t have such amount of money. He reduced it to N30,000, or they would charge him to court the next day. I was there from 2pm to 9pm, begging them but they refused. They dumped my son in the cell. I now contacted a family friend, who now called their Crime Officer at Ojo. The Crime Officer called the team that arrested my son. They told him the same story and he asked them to release my son to me. That was when they released him, after I parted with N3000. It was when my son came out that he told me that he was not even having his phone when they arrested him, that he was charging his phone at home.”
Another resident, Mr. Nwatu, noted that his 19 years old son, Emeka Nwafor Nwatu, who just came back from school, was also arrested by the same team of policemen, when he had gone to the same Alaba International Market to buy a cell phone. He said his son was also accused of being an Internet fraudster.
When Nwatu spoke with the reporter, his son was still in detention. He said: “My son, Emeka, went to Alaba International, to buy phone. He just finished his first semester exams from Federal Polytechnic, Oko in Anambra State. When he came back, he got a job with a Betnaija shop, instead of staying idle. They had resumed school and the owner of the shop paid him N 10,000. He went to Alaba to buy a phone because he been using a Nokia torch phone, which I gave to him. He also wanted to open account with FCMB because all this while, I was sending money to him through his fellow student,. He had opened the account and bough the phone with receipt and documents from the bank when they arrested him. One of his friends alerted me of the development. When I got to the station, they told me that he is an Internet fraudster. I told the officer that I knew my son very well, that he can never be part of such fraudulent business. They were very aggressive to me and never wanted me to speak. The officer demanded that I should bring N50,000, or the next day, they would charge him to court. I don’t know where I will get such amount of money. I left him in the cell till the next day, before help came my way.”
The reporter visited Ojo Police Station, as at the time the suspect was still in detention at Ira Police Post. The Crime Officer at Ojo told the reporter that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) had gone to a meeting with the Area E Commander. The reporter narrated the plight of Mr. Nwatu to the Crime Officer. He immediately, summoned the officer in charge of the post to report to his office. Upon his arrival, the officer told the C O, that Emeka had made a confessional statement when he was arrested, that he is into Internet fraud, that he joined the fraud business three months before his arrest. He assured the Crime Officer and the Station Officer that the confessional statement was intact, and they were about charging the suspect to court, based on his confessional statement.
Thereupon, the Crime Officer told our reporter that from the statement of the Officer in Charge of the Post, the suspect was not arrested illegally. The reporter, requested to see the statement of the suspect, which the Crime Officer said could be confirmed at the post.
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When the reporter and the O C, including the suspect’s father arrived at the post, Emeka denied making such statement. He said he has been using a Nokia Torch light phone, and does not even have a bank account. His statement was immediately brought out, and read before the parties. It was discovered that there was no truth in what the O C had told the Crime Officer. He quickly twisted that it was the statement of another suspect that he read before, believing that it was for Emeka, as they had arrested nine other suspects, alongside Emeka that fateful day.
The suspect was immediately released to go home with his father.
Citing the above instances, residents are, therefore, worried that if nothing is done urgently, innocent citizens would continue to suffer and may even end up in jail for offences they did not commit. They claim that there are many more unreported cases and begged the police authorities to step into the matter before things degenerate.
The reporter sent a text message sent to the Crime Officer, Ojo Police Station, Sup. Henry, decrying the conduct of the Officer in Charge of Ira Police Post, and his readiness to report the matter to the State Commissioner of Police, he promised in his reply that such would not happen again. In the message, he noted that they shall continue to educate the officers according to the current practice of the Force.
