Date: 2020-07-24

...Seek reinstatement into force

Two dismissed police officers from Kwara state police command have petitioned the Inspector General of police (IGP) and the state police Commissioner Kayode Egbetokun alleging illegal dismissal from service.

They are asking the police high command to review their cases for probable prompt reinstatement.

In a jointly signed petition the aggrieved police officers also sent copies the petition to Assistant Inspector General Zone 8 Lokoja, Egbe Afenifere, Civil Liberties Organization, Okun Development Association.

The officers, Akano Shola (Sergeant) and Babatunde Glorious, (Corporal) with 14 and 9 years in service, accused some top brass of the police for allegedly hindering free flow of investigations and prosecutions of suspects apprehended by the command.

Shola and Glorious alleged that their dismissal was not unrelated to their refusal to allegedly bow to pressure from some senior officers to release some robbery suspects in their custody.

The dismissed officers canvassed open and transparent investigations into their detention and orderly room trial which lasted for 15 days upon trumped up charges.

They added that some of the police officers are allegedly benefiting from the activities of the suspects.

The petition reads: "We are aware that a certain police officer in the Administrative Department (name withheld) in the Kwara State Command is begrudging us for our non-conformist stance with respect to cases which he and other senior officers have interest in.

"Meanwhile, our stance in each of those cases was not out of insubordination and/or disrespect to lawful authorities but as a result of our firm belief that the law should take its normal cause particularly as regards grievous and recurring offences.

"We make bold to say that the allegations against us which led to our dismissal are unfounded and designed to get rid of us for not compromising with some suspects who to all intent and purpose have links to the senior officers in the Command.

"It is on record that sometime(s) sic in December 2018, one Dr Omowumi AbdulRazak brought a complaint to the Public Complaint Bureau, Ilorin command that he was robbed of his car and other valuables at gun point.

"The undersigned and others were detailed to investigate the matter which led to the arrest of some suspects (both male) who are found to be in the habit of donning military camouflage shirts to dispossess unsuspecting citizens of their belongings at gunpoint

"They were found in possession of the complainant's car alongside other cars with sundry forged documents, spare keys and number plates which were recovered from them in Faraway Nasarawa state sometime in 2019. The suspects have since been charged to court for conspiracy, armed robbery, forgery, receiving stolen property and theft.

"Not surprising of the characteristics of Nigerian society, top officer at the Administrative Department and a woman sergeant (name withheld) with other senior police officers whose names we don't want to mention because of our lives, started mounting pressure on us to release the suspects and compromise the case of which overture was bluntly refused by us.

"When it became obvious that we would not accede to their request for terminating the case at the station, they requested through the said woman sergeant that the offence of 'Armed Robbery' be removed from the alleged offences with an offer of three million naira (N3, 000,000:00) which we still refused, hence, drawing the battle line between us and the said officers.

"Further to this, a senior officer of the administrative department personally met us to tell us that those boys were his boys and that the camouflages being used in their respective operations belong to their father and as such, they should not be held liable for any offence."

The dismissed officers said while the matter lasted, another case of fraud was referred to them for investigations in which the suspects were apprehended and refunded the money to the victim. They added that somewhere along the line, they were allegedly framed up by the said suspects which led to the detention of the former officers for 15 days.

According to them "while in detention, we were handcuffed, tortured with our clothes torn and were taken through all forms of dehumanization all through the period of our detention until when the O/C SARS intervened before we were un-cuffed."

The petitioners said that while in detention, a motion seeking for the release of the stolen cars and other property impounded from the suspects were allegedly served on the office, adding that "but for the COVID-19 imposed holiday, the motion would have been heard unopposed."

They claimed to have filed a counter affidavit to the motion as soon as they were admitted to bail noting that, "that was the time when we understood that we were fighting against a ring. It is not a surprise therefore that it was the same office that defaulted us that tried us and eventually went ahead to dismiss us."

For the petitioners "a lot of crimes are being covered up and criminal investigations being sabotaged and compromised to the detriment of the image of the force and the safety of the entire populace and unfortunately, it is being masterminded by some of the Senior police officers who are benefiting immensely from the perpetrators of these crimes."