Inspite of the disciplinary action being taken against corrupt and erring policemen by the Inspector General of the Police, Ibrahim Idris, many operatives of the force have yet to discard their old ways and turn a new leaf.
Last Monday, around the Berger axis of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, some policemen attached to the Highway Patrol van 020 engaged in yet another show of shame, when they made a desperate attempt to extort the driver of a private KIA saloon car.
When the driver declined to cooperate with them, they resorted to some subtle threat and violence.
The drama, according to an eye witness, who pleaded anonymity, started when the highway patrol team, which had become notorious for harassing motorists and commuters between Ojodu Berger and Secretariat Bus Stop on the expressway on a daily basis, used its van to double-cross the driver of the KIA at Secretariat Bus Stop.
The gun-toting policemen accused him of using the bus stop meant for only commercial buses, threatening to arrest him if he failed to part with some money.
When the driver insisted that he had done nothing wrong or flouted any traffic law, one of the policemen attempted to remove his car number plate, but the man quickly put the vehicle in reverse to frustrate the action. Almost at the same time, another policeman quickly moved to deflate one of the car tyres, but the driver, again, moved the vehicle forward to stop him.
It was at this juncture that one the policemen, who had become angry by the audacity displayed by the car driver, threatened to shoot him while making frantic efforts to load his gun. As the policeman struggled with his gun, the driver quickly engaged the car gear and sped away from the scene. But he did not escape without any scratch as the angry policeman used the butt of his gun to shatter the side mirror of the car as the driver moved it away from the scene.
He alleged that the police team had become notorious for extorting commuters and drivers around the area as they had formed the habit of chasing vehicles on the highway for the purpose of collecting money from the drivers.
The eye witness added, “These police officers are well known to us around here up to Berger. That is how they patrol the expressway and extort drivers. As you can see, they were telling the man (driver) that he was not supposed to drop passengers in the bus stop that is meant for commercial buses.
“Initially, when they blocked the driver, the young man, who didn’t wind his side glass down totally, gave them his vehicle particulars on request, but when they realised there was no offence against him, they asked him to alight, but he refused. They also told him to wind down properly, he also didn’t respond. After several attempts to bring him out of the car failed, they decided to remove his number plate. As one of them was about to unscrew the number plate, the driver reversed the car to prevent him. After this, another police officer also descended on the car tyres and started to deflate it. When the driver also saw it from his mirror, he also moved the car forward to stop him.
“After about 20 minutes that they had been dragging the issue with the driver, one of the policemen, who threatened to shoot the car’s tyres attempted to load his gun’s magazine but before he did, the driver had already moved out to the road. This infuriated the policeman, who quickly used his gun to break the car’s side mirror.”
He appealed to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni and the Inspector General of Police, Idris, to call these erring policemen on the highway to order to avoid a situation where they would cause avoidable auto crash on the expressway.
