A police sergeant, Ekpo Shimuyere, has been dismissed by the Lagos State Police Command for extorting money from a young man.
The dismissed policeman, who last served at Sogunle Police Station allegedly extorted #98, 000 from the unnamed victim.
The spokesperson in charge of the state Police Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the dismissal of the officer to Tribune Online on Wednesday.
Hundeyin said that 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.
Hundeyin said, “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.
Hundeyin also stated that “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.
According to the Police spokesperson, “The Commissioner of Police, Lagos Command, Mr Idowu Owohunwa, has 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.
“The commissioner warned officers and men against any form of corruption, stressing that the dismissal was to serve as a deterrent to others.”
He further warned that the command would continue to punish any police officer found to have engaged in unprofessional conduct.
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