A police officer at the Area C Command, Surulere, Lagos, has been accused of forcing a complainant in a kidnap case to part with some money before attending to her.
The officer said to be an Inspector (names withheld) was accused of allegedly demanding N5000 from the complainant before he could open a file for a case bearing on the alleged attempted kidnap of her child.
The complainant, Mrs. Badirat Junaid, said she had approached the Area C Command to formally report an attempted kidnap of her child by a suspect.
But instead of promptly opening the case file and commencing investigation into the matter, considering the urgency and gravity of the offence, the complainant said the Inspector, one of the officers at the Area command, who was asked to take over the case, requested for N5000 before her case could be attended to.
Narrating how the incident occurred, the complainant said, “I was in my house at Apata street, Bariga, when I heard some noise that someone was caught for kidnapping. On getting outside, I discovered that my 18-month-old daughter was the one that the suspect attempted to kidnap. One of my neigbours, who is a hairdresser, was the one who raised the alarm, before people in the area helped to apprehend him. The area boys in our area wanted to lynch him, but we decided to hand him over to the police. But to my surprise, when we got to police at Area C, Barracks, the officer that was asked to take over the case asked me to bring N5000 before they could open a file for the case.
The victim’s mother, who is a teacher in a school within the community, also alleged that the police officer had been calling her on phone to come over with the money to enable them to incident the case.
“He also called me this morning and I told him I had to go to work that when I returned from work, I would be in their station. As if that was not enough, some minutes after my arrival from work, he also called me to quickly bring the money and come along with the eyewitness of the case,” she said.
However, the hair dresser, who raised the alarm before the suspect was apprehended, said she saw the alleged child kidnapper, who is simply identified as Segun, pick up the child. The hair dresser, who preferred to be addressed as Iya Sunday, said she became curious and confronted the suspect.
She said, “I saw the man, whose name was later given as Segun, pick up the neighbour’s child and I confronted him and asked him where he was taking the child to. When he noticed he was about to be caught and his evil intention was about to be exposed, he panicked and took to his heels.
“The street boys in our area chased him and he was promptly arrested. He was about to be lynched when someone suggested that we should take him to Area C police Command.”
An officer of the Directorate of State Services, who was at the scene of the incident, said she rescued the suspected kidnapper from the mob and handed him over to policemen.
The Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Chike Oti, said, “Police will investigate the case to unravel the mystery behind it.”
