The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, has taken decisive action by ordering the removal of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Meiran Police Station in Lagos State following allegations of extortion.
The incident came to light when an engineer, Ibrahim Saliu, reported to the media that some police officers from the Meiran Police Station had allegedly extorted N200,000 from him on a particular Saturday.
According to Saliu, the officers, including the station’s DPO, reportedly threatened him and his brother with imprisonment if they failed to provide receipts for some mobile phones in their possession.
Saliu stated, “The DPO took the iPhones, removed the warranty stickers, and declared that my brother and I are thieves and armed robbers. The next thing I heard was the DPO giving them an order to detain us and that we would be locked up for stealing and armed robbery. We were surprised and started begging.”
To secure their release, Saliu claimed they were asked to make a payment of N500,000, but they eventually agreed to pay N200,000 in cash, as per the officers’ instructions.
In response to this incident, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the situation through a tweet. He revealed that the Lagos Commissioner of Police, CP Idowu Owohunwa, had ordered the immediate removal of the Meiran Police Station DPO due to leadership negligence and supervisory inadequacy.
Hundeyin further noted that all the involved officers had been identified and were undergoing an orderly room trial at the Command headquarters.
