A man who paraded himself as a police officer attached to the Idimu Police Station has stolen the mobile phone of a 35-year-old artisan, Kehinde Adesina, inside the station in the Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State.
According to reports, officers attached to the station arrested the artisan on Tuesday, June 6, for violating the traffic rule in the state.
The policemen subsequently took him to the police station where they allegedly demanded N20,000 to release his vehicle.
The artisan who spoke to The Punch, said he complained to the policemen that he had no means to raise such an amount and the policemen instructed him to leave their office.
He, however, noted that he was still on the premises of the station when the suspect approached him, introduced himself as a policeman and offered to assist him in securing the release of his vehicle.
Adesina said; “When we got to the police station, the policemen asked me to pay N20,000 for my offence and later reduced it to N10,000 but I told them I don’t that amount and they asked me to leave.
“So, a man wearing a mufti approached and offered to help me talk to the policemen. He went into their office to discuss with them, returned and demanded N3000 for the policemen and my phone to make a call.
“When I gave him the phone, he went back into the office to meet the policemen and later came out to inform me that one of the policemen, Supol Peter, needed a recharge card. Supol Peter also came out and said I should buy Airtel and not an MTN recharge card.
“When I asked the policeman (Supol Peter) for the man’s whereabouts, he said he thought he was my brother. He started abusing me for giving my phone to a stranger.”
Adesina noted that the policemen quickly gave him the key to his car but denied him access to make an official complaint about his stolen phone.
Despite lamenting that it was a case of theft that happened at the station the policewomen ensured that he parted with N1000 before he was able to lodge a complaint and thereafter directed him to the office of the policemen who arrested him for a traffic offence in the state.
