Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences Unit (Task Force) has announced the suspension of a paramilitary officer of the Agency for extorting money from an arrested traffic offender in Ikorodu.
Disclosing details of the incident, Chairman of the Lagos State Task Force, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi said the suspension became imperative following complaints against the officer on the social media and subsequent investigation of the accused staff.
Egbeyemi said investigations revealed that the officer, Mr. Ikuburuju Alex, truly negotiated and extorted the sum of N30,000 from the owner of an impounded vehicle who committed a traffic offence by plying the ‘BRT’ lane around Agric Bus-Stop in Ikorodu.
He stated that “on that fateful day I was having a lecture with all my Police Officers at Bolade before the indicted paramilitary officer went and carried out the shady deal, knowing fully well that there will not be any Police Officer on ground at Ikorodu.”
According to Egbeyemi, the action of the officer was disgraceful and did not justify the training, motivation as well as huge investment by the government to engender excellent performance of staff during the agency’s operations.
“The government recently trained all paramilitary officers attached to the Agency on ‘Career Evaluation’ where they were taught how to be professionals and civil in dealing with members of the public”, Egbeyemi said.
He reiterated that the Agency would not tolerate indolence and indiscipline in any form, adding that any officer whose behaviour could tarnish the image of the Agency would be shown the way out.
CSP Egbeyemi also confirmed that a Senior Police Officer who led the team that impounded the vehicle has been redeployed to another unit of the Agency due to inadequate supervision of his subordinates.
“Members of the public should not hesitate to report to the Agency any officer found misbehaving in the course of discharging his/her official duties for appropriate sanction and discipline”, he said.
The indicted paramilitary officer popularly called ‘Iku’ has confessed to collecting the sum of N30,000 before the release of the impounded vehicle to the owner, promising to be of good character, henceforth, if pardoned.