The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the RRS said through its Twitter handle that the men were arrested on Friday in Ajah area of the state.

“Our officers at Ajah extorted N5, 000 from a lady; our Ops officers went in search, arrested and detained them at Alausa Headquarters of the squad. They will be transferred to the headquarters on Monday for trial,” the RRS twitted.

The squad, however, did not state what led to the extortion and if the money collected was recovered.

In response to NAN queries on cases of impersonation of RRS operatives, it said that all RRS operatives must wear official badges on sleeves and their name tags on the breast of their shirts.

It stressed that the public could also identify white vehicles of RRS operatives with red and blue stripes and “RRS” boldly inscribed on the body of the vehicles, motorcycles and Armored Personnel Carriers (APC).

The squad urged the public to report any unprofessional conduct by its officers to 09053950347, 08185919893. (SMS and WhatsApp only).

The post Five RRS operatives arrested over alleged extortion of N5, 000 appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

The traffic officials are Bamidele Sheu, a level seven traffic officer aged 48 and resident of 68, Oke Popo Street, Lagos Island; Ope Adisa, aged 32 and level 5 traffic officer of 8, Freeman Street, Lagos Island and Babatunde Aluko 37 years old traffic officer level 4 of 15, Oriwu street, Ikorodu.

The trio was arrested following a complaint to the Agency by one Akinmolayan Babatunde, a clearing agent for illegal apprehension of his container truck with number AA 553 NGW at Marina area of the Lagos Island and subsequent demand for N80,000 bribe by the traffic officers before the vehicle could be released.

According to Akinmolayan, he was accompanying the container truck on Monday morning to deliver goods at Walter Carrington Street at Victoria Island, when the truck was forced to stop at Marina close to the State House by the three LASTMA officials in uniform working with some other men in mufti for driving the vehicle at unauthorised hours.

Akinmolayan said all pleas to allow the truck to go in order to meet up with delivery time fell on deaf ears as the traffic officials and these men in mufti engaged him in fisticuffs, and the vehicle was eventually taken to Olowu removal yard of the Agency on the Island, where they demanded for the sum of N80,000 before its release.

It took the intervention of the zonal head and after parting with N7, 000 to some men in mufti that the vehicle was eventually released and allowed to go.

In the same vein, the duo of Jimo Olaosebikan and Emmanuel Padonu were arrested during the week by surveillance unit and provost officials of the Agency at Okokomaiko and Mile 12 areas of the state respectively.

While Olaosebikan was arrested by men of LASTMA surveillance team unit at Okokomaiko along Lagos- Badagry expressway for illegally collecting a sum of N20,000 from a female motorist whom he alleged to have made an illegal u-turn at Okokomaiko.

According to the motorist, “all explanations that other vehicles have been turning there before for failed to convince him and efforts to see his superior officers in their office were frustrated by him, only for him to collect the sum of N20,000 from me before their surveillance team emerged from nowhere to arrest him.”

Padonu, on his part, was picked up by Provost officials for using men in mufti to collect money from commercial drivers at Mile 12 area of Kosofe Local Government of Lagos State on Wednesday morning.

The arrest was as a result of tip off from members of the public who informed the Agency that some traffic officials were conniving with men in mufti to arrest and collect money from commercial drivers in the area.

Speaking on the arrested officials, General Manager of LASTMA, Olawale Musa expressed dismay at the activities of unscrupulous elements within the Agency and assured that with the assistance of members of the public they will be eased off from the Agency to protect the good name of the hard working officers who work assiduously to ensure free flow of traffic in the State.

Musa expressed his appreciation to members of the public for alerting the Agency to the unscrupulous activities of these officials, just as he advised motorists to always report any LASTMA official found wanting on duty.

According to him, “LASTMA operates a cashless policy and motorists should not give money to any LASTMA official under any circumstance. Furthermore, LASTMA officials on duty are always in uniforms with names conspicuously displayed on the breast pockets and motorists should disregard anybody not in uniform claiming to be Agency officials.

He said such person in mufti should be reported to LASTMA or nearest law enforcement Agency, adding that any motorist dealing with the state traffic official should feel free to demand for his identity and name.

Musa urged motorists and members of the public to take advantage of the open door policy of the Agency to make complaints against any erring officer, and as such complains would not only be treated with dispatch, but also make sure justice is done.

The LASTMA boss therefore urged motorists to exhaust all avenues available to seek redress before approaching media, as any officer found wanting on duty would be dealt with according to the service rules and regulation.

“I want to assure motorists that we have put everything in place to ensure free flow of traffic during the yuletide period and I want to implore motorists to imbibe the culture of voluntary compliance with traffic officials directives, obey road signs and laws so that we can have seamless traffic during this yuletide period,” Musa said.

It would be recalled that over 20 officials of the Agency have been dismissed this year for various act of misconduct that were considered to be inimical to the service of the state and Agency.

This is in addition to dozens of other officials that have received various letters of warning and those that are waiting their turn to appear before Personal Management Board (discipline) for various unwholesome act and behaviour.

The post LASTMA arrests five officials for extortion, dismissed 20 for misconduct appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

Edgal has also ordered the Deputy Commissioner of police, DCP, in charge of Administration of Lagos command to issue the DPO in-charge of the area a query and also report the conduct of the DPO to higher authorities for poor supervision of his men according to the Inspector-General of police directives.

The CP also ordered that henceforth, only HOD’ s, Area commanders and DPO’S who are directly in charge of their Departments or stations are the only ones allowed to sign a detention order in the command. The CP said under no circumstances should any other person sign detention order.

He further stated that any area command found guilty of any unworthy or a shameful act to the police force, the Area commander or DPO will be held liable for unnecessary detention of citizens.

According to him “it has become very vital for all officers and men in Lagos state police command to adhere these instructions and on no account will the fundamental rights of the citizens of Lagos be trampled upon under my watch”.

The CP also note that the officers found guilty of extorting motorist are currently facing disciplinary actions and the police force in the State will no longer tolerate any act of lawlessness from its personnel.

The post Lagos CP Edgal orders arrest of three motorists-extorting policemen appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

The victim narrated to our correspondent on Thursday that the incident occurred on April 15, 2014, a day after she was arrested by the police for “spurious” reasons.

Akinwunmi said she works at an eatery on Keffi Street, Obalende, as a cook. “The eatery also has a tailor’s shop in the compound and it belongs to the same person. There is also a quarters where we all live in the compound.

She said that most of the workers in the eatery are from Cotonou, Benin Republic and that on Monday, a popular customer, known as Friday, came to eat and later left, but returned some moments later claiming he could not get a bus home.

“Friday had been making advances at me, but we were not a couple. I allowed him to sleep over,” she admitted though, adding that around 1am, her boss, who discovered that someone was sleeping over, called the police to arrest her and Friday as well as two other persons that slept over at the tailors’ quarters.

“My madam called policemen to arrest all of us. I had only a pair of shorts, a shirt and a wrapper on. I had N11, 000 in my pocket and my phone was not with me. On getting to the station, I got the phone of a policewoman and used it to call one of the tailors to come and help.

“In the morning of Tuesday, two tailors, Ben and Matthias, arrived to bail out their friends, but they were also arrested, bringing our total number to six.”

The victim said a few hours later, she felt sticky and pleaded with a policewoman on duty to allow her have a bath but said she could not use the shower because it was too filthy, adding that on her way out, she met the DPO for the first time.

“I met the DPO along the corridor and he asked me what happened and I explained everything to him. Around 10pm on Tuesday, the DPO sent a policeman to call Friday and I. I was wearing boxers and a top. I stayed at the counter and Friday went in to see the DPO. A few minutes later, Friday came out and the DPO called me in.

“The DPO said he could make sure that I spent the rest of my life in jail, but I begged him. He then came close to me and started rubbing his hands all over my body but I rejected his advances.

“He said my boss had told him that he could do whatever he wanted to do with me. He said since I was from Benin Republic, if he killed me, nothing would happen.

Akinwunmi said the DPO threatened her that he would also make sure that the remaining five suspects would be sent to prison, adding that at that point, the DPO had already taken off his clothes and “Since was afraid for my life, I allowed the DPO to have his way.

“I begged him to use a condom, but he refused. He pushed me to a smaller room in his office and put me on the bed and had sex with me. Immediately after he had finished, he told me to shower in a bathroom inside his office.”

She said that the DPO promised to ensure that she was released the next morning and ordered a policeman to take her back into the cell. She claimed that when she returned to the cell, she cried through the night and that the following morning, she told some female police officers about the incident.

She said when her people came to bail her from the station, the DPO asked one Inspector Taiwo to bring her to his office.

“The DPO gave me his telephone number and asked for mine, but I didn’t give it to him. He then said I could leave and promised that no one would collect bail money from us. However, on getting to the counter, the policemen on duty collected N30, 000 from us,” she said.

The matter was said to have been reported at the Area A Police Command, Lion Building, after which the Area Commander, ACP Imohimi Edgal, invited the victim for interrogation and the matter has now been transferred to the office of the Commissioner of Police.

Dr. Josephine Effah-Chukwumah, the Director, Project Alert on Violence Against Women, in a chat with our correspondent urged the police to handle the matter seriously. “The fact that there were no bruises does not mean that rape did not occur. The moment there is a direct threat to life on the condition of sex, the offence is rape. It is unacceptable.”

The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission over the alleged rape of Akinwunmi. The petition, dated April 16 2014 and signed by NOPRIN’s National Coordinator, Okechukwu Nwagunma, is said to be receiving the attention of the Police Service Commission had received copies of the petition even as the Lagos Office of the NHRC had been directed to investigate the complaint.

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