Despite current hardship, Lagos DPO extorts poor villagers in Agbowa
The divisional police officer in charge of Agbowa Police Station, Olugbenga Bolaji, allegedly extorts the poor, helpless villagers in the Agbowa community, in the Ikorodu axis of Lagos state.
TheCornet has followed the complaints by the dwellers of the beleaguered community, who alleged Olugbenga and his men seized their motorcycles while demanding N20,000 each from their owners before they are released.
An influencer Japheth Omojuwa, in a string of tweets, reported how Olugbegba and one of his officers, identified as ASP Osha, have repeatedly harassed and oppressed the villagers.
Omojuwa said that “ASP Osha works under the command of DPO Olugbenga (and) together the people of Agbowa have had to bear the brunt of oppression under their own police officers. Don’t take my word for it. Any journalist can go speak to the people over there. You’d think they were enslaved Nigerians.”
Following the revelation, the DPO Olugbenga, ASP Osha ordered that the motorcycles be hidden from plain sight. According to Omojuwa, the officers took the action in order to “hide evidence”
He said, “ ASP Osha in particular is now threatening the villagers that they will bear the brunt of his anger for reporting his menace to “a journalist”. It’s like a captured village at this point.”
This medium obtained a phone voice recording believed to be Olugbenga’s, as the shown caller’s number matches his. On the call, Olugbenga raged and threatened to deal with his accuser.
“If I can get your identity, I promise you I will send you to jail and If you know you are a man, let me have your identity,” Olugbenga said to his accuser.
As a country, we should all be looking out for one another. The fuel subsidy had to go. Fine. However, it is biting hard. What no one should do, let alone a police officer, is to further make lives harder for everyday people who are already struggling. This is a DPO you know? pic.twitter.com/i9A9DGtkTi
— JJ. Omojuwa (@Omojuwa) July 26, 2023
As gathered, Olugbenga and Osha’s atrocious acts got the attention of the Commissioner of Police Idowu Olohunwa, who recalled him to the police command.
Police extortion of hapless citizens is a common occurrence in Nigeria. In Lagos-Nigeria’s commercial hub and most economically advanced state-citizens’ complaints about police misdemeanours is a constant occurrence. Apart from extortion, police are notorious for unlawful killings. An instance is the killing of a generator repairer, Bakare Idris by a trigger-happy cop, Kabiru Odejimi. Similarly, another police officer in Lagos, in 2022, callously snuffed life out of a pregnant female lawyer, Bolanle Raheem.
However, the Lagos police seem to have become responsive to its reputational deficit in the public space, as some incidents have shown. The command has, at different times, arrested, tried, and dismissed errant officers.
Like in DPO Olugbenga, CP Olohunwa equally recalled the DPO of Okokomaiko Police Station after complaints of extortion against his men was reported.
In May 2022, the command tried some police officers for extorting a man of his 400 euro, while the command in another case dismissed a certain sergeant Ekpo Shimuyere for fleecing a citizen of his N98,000.
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