DPO queried as four policemen are arrested for ‘robbery’

Four policemen are in soup for allegedly robbing a Togo- based Nigerian of CFA 350,000 (about N63,130).

Inspector Victor Amiete, Sergeants Samuel Gbemunu and Afolabi Oluwaseun, and  Corporal Adigun Omotayo of the Ijanikin Police Division, Lagos, are being detained at the Provost Section at the Command Headquarters in Ikeja.

They allegedly robbed Theodore Ifunnaya on December 17, around Iyana-Era, during a stop-and-search.

Ifunnaya, who was coming home for the Yuletide, was allegedly bundled into a patrol vehicle and taken to the station when the policemen found the money on him.

The policemen allegedly tortured, stripped and photographed him before they seized his money.

The suspects were said to have invited a Bureau De Change (BDC) operator, who changed the money for them. They allegedly gave  Ifunnaya N2,000 out of the money as fare.

The Nation learnt that the suspects threatened to share Ifunnaya’s nude pictures on social media and accuse him of cultism and robbery if he protested.

Luck ran out on the policemen when Ifunnaya’s relatives took the case to the Area ‘K’ Commander, Hope Okafor, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP).

Okafor, it was gathered, contacted the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), demanding the suspects’ arrest and the recovery of the money.

In a statement yesterday, the command’s spokesman, Chike Oti, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), denied that the victim was stripped during interrogation.

Oti said Commissioner Imohimi Edgal has ordered the arrest and trial of the policemen.

The CP also ordered that the DPO be queried.

Oti said: “If found guilty at the end of the orderly room trial, the suspects will be dismissed.”