OSOGBO, Nigeria — Amid the festivities of the Osun Osogbo festival, a video showing the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Adewale Egbedun, catching police officers extorting N75,000 from festival-goers quickly went viral.
The officers, allegedly preying on travellers and motorists, are now in detention, facing the consequences of their misconduct.
Yemisi Opalola, the spokesperson for the Osun State Police Command, on Friday, August 11, 2023, expressed her unequivocal condemnation of the incident.
“The police officers involved in this unprofessional and unethical behaviour have been identified, arrested, and detained,” she confirmed.
According to Opalola, the episode transpired along the Ile-ogbo axis of the state.
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She emphatically stated, “the Command frowned and condemned the act in totality.” Furthermore, she revealed that the implicated officers had been in detention since Thursday, August 10, 2023.
“They are undergoing investigation and eventual disciplinary procedure of orderly room trial for their unprofessional conduct,” she noted. “The senior officer among them has been queried accordingly.”
Reaffirming the commitment of the police leadership to maintain the integrity of the force, she quoted the Commissioner of Police: “He will never condone any act of indiscipline and unprofessional conduct exhibited by any member of the Nigeria Police under his watch.”
The public’s commendation of the Speaker’s intervention has been considerable.
His recorded action, demanding the return of the extorted funds and then reporting the misconduct to the police command, serves as a poignant reminder of elected officials’ crucial role in holding law enforcement accountable.
Ogun: Lawyer Yemisi Adebayo Blames Police Molestation for Devastating Pregnancy Loss
An Ogun-based lawyer, Yemisi Adebayo, on Saturday, August 5, 2023, recounted a harrowing ordeal at the hands of the state police, leading to a miscarriage.
Adebayo stated that she was apprehended in her office by three police officers on Monday, July 31, 2023, under the guise of being taken to Onipanu Police Station, only for the police vehicle to bypass the station.
The initial involvement of Adebayo in the police case came when she accompanied a man named Niyi and four other individuals to the Onipanu Police Station after they were summoned over a land dispute.
The resolution of the case saw Adebayo being made responsible for producing the five individuals upon police request.
Despite informing the individuals to visit the police station on the particular Monday, officers arrived at her office demanding her presence.
On the way to what she believed was the police station, the police vehicle took an unexpected route.
Alarmed, Adebayo tried to flee when the car briefly stopped, but she was forcefully restrained.
Adebayo narrated a distressing confrontation where she was threatened and manhandled, leading to her public outcry and pleas for bystanders to document the situation.
The police officers, brandishing weapons, intimidated onlookers and subsequently let Adebayo go, abducting Niyi.
