By Wilson Adekumola
In its efforts to sanitize its officers, the Lagos State Police Command has dismissed Sgt. Ekpo Shimuyere attached to Sogunle Division for extorting a young man of N98,000.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin explained to newsmen on Wednesday that the Provost Department of the command had already disrobed the dismissed sergeant.
Hundeyin said the dismissed sergeant collected the phone of his victim and used a POS operator to transfer N98,000 out of the N100,000 in the young man’s bank account.
The spokesman stated further that the action of the policeman was contrary to the ethics of the profession.
“Police got the complaint from the victim and the officer denied the crime when he was contacted. The command placed him under detention so that he will not tamper with the evidence.
“We wrote to his bank and obtained his statement of account. We were able to trace the money to where the POS operator transferred it to before transferring the money to the officer’s account.
“We followed due process to get his account. The victim was invited in the course of investigation, and he testified.
“The POS operator was also invited, and he said the officer requested him to transfer the money from the victim’s account to another one,” Hudenyi added.
He said that the Sergeant was consequently subjected to Orderly Room trial in line with extant laws.
“The Commissioner of Police, Lagos Command, Mr Idowu Owohunwa, have reviewed the orderly room procedure of the officer with Force No. 461654, attached to Sogunle Police Division and have approved the punishment of dismissal from the Force,” he said.
The PPRO said that the commissioner warned officers and men against any form of corruption, explaining that the dismissal was to serve as a deterrent to others.
He further reassured the command’s commitment to continue to punish any police officer found to have engaged in unprofessional conduct.
Source: NAN
