After one month, Nigerian police not acting on officers caught taking bribe

The Nigerian Police are yet to take definite action one month after CAMPUS REPORTER reported two of their officers to have been caught on camera extorting motorists along Ijebu Ode-Ibadan Road in Ogun State.

The two officers whose badge identified as Oyewole Afolabi and Eniola Olaiya were caught by CAMPUS REPORTER collecting bribe from a bus driver who was conveying passengers to Ibadan from Ajah, Lagos State in May.

The officers were arbitrarily imposing on motorists whose vehicle licence or insurance papers are outdated or missing. Where all vehicle and driving credentials are intact, they found other ways of harassing and extort road users.

When CAMPUS REPORTER forwarded multimedia evidence of the officers’ misconducts to Abayomi Shogunle, head of police complaints unit in Abuja, he promised to examine the images and issued a tracking number (PCRRU915475).

However, one month after the complaint was made and tracking number got, the police are yet to take any definite action.

When we contacted the complaint unit on May 17, an officer who spoke with our correspondent in a telephone interview said it was under investigation. “This very incident is still under investigation. We are still investigating it. You can call us tomorrow. Thank you”.

On May 23, when we called the complaint unit again to track the case, we were informed by the officer who answered our call that the unit Engineer was working on the system and promised to get back to us which he failed to do.

He said: “Our Engineer is working on our system and that’s why we delayed you. We are going to call you back. We are going to get back to you soon”.

When contacted again on June 11, we were informed that the last efforts made on the complaint were carried out on May 19.

“Our detective unit has been informed to look into the matter but I did not see their comment to know if they have looked into the matter or not,” an officer said. “The last comment on the system was on the 19th of May. I will advise that you call for a further update so that I will contact our detectives”.

However all efforts to get the reaction of the Police Spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, and the head of police complaint unit in Abuja, Mr Shogunle proved abortive as they both refused to answer several calls placed to their phone. The duo did not also respond to text messages sent to them.