Dismissed Policeman Arrested For Snatching Okada
THE
efforts of the Oyo State Police Command towards crime reduction have been
yielding results, as suspected criminals were paraded to journalists on
Thursday November 15 during a press briefing
Among the 14 suspected criminals
paraded for various offences was a dismissed police officer who forcefully took
a commercial motorcycle from its rider.
Crime Features gathered that the
dismissed policeman, Raphael Sani, with force number 443626, was a constable
working at the Area Command Office, Iyaganku, Ibadan before he was dismissed
for going on illegal duty.
However, it seemed that Sani felt that robbery was
another lucrative job, hence his decision to start snatching okada from riders.
His victim, one Jelilu Mumuni, a
citizen of Republic of Niger, told Crime Features that he was at Kara area of
Bodija waiting for passenger when Sani and another man currently at large
approached him, asking him to take them to Agodi Gate area.
According to Mumuni, “this man (Sani)
approached me to take him and one other man to Agodi Gate but I told him that I
ply Bodija to Sango. He brought out his identification card, saying that he was
a policeman and pleading that I should help him to a spot where
they could easily get another okada. On the way, he said I should go and
drop him at 411 club on Awolowo road. I thought that was okay since I was going
to Sango.
As we passed the railway at Bodija oju
irin, the second man used his hand to push my face cap off my head. I wanted to
turn to pick it but they said I didn’t need to do that. With the belief that he
was truly a policeman, I kept the okada engine running and got down to pick the
cap.
Before I knew what was happening, the
one at large zoomed off with the ‘policeman’ on my okada. I quickly waved down
an okada rider and told him what happened. We started trailing them until we
saw them with the okada at Civic Centre, Mokola. I started shouting Ole! Ole!!
(thief!, thief!!). They sped towards Sabo and that was where they were stopped
by the Hausas there. The other man escaped, But, Sani, who was pleading that
the Divisional Police Officer at Mokola should have mercy on him, said that he
just took the okada to Mokola, because the okada man did not want to take him.
The Kogi-born dismissed police officer said that “on Wednesday, I called an
okada rider at Bodija to take me to Mokola. He said he was not going that way.
I begged him to take me, promising to give him money. He got down to pick
something and I went away with his motorcycle”
When asked why he was dismissed from
the police force, Sani said he and three others, who were attached to the
office of the Area Commander, Iyaganku, Ibadan, went to Ile-Ife in Osun State
on illegal duty. Sani said they were caught and dismissed in April, 2011.
Depsite his dismissal, however, Sani was still using his police identity card.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police in
charge of administration in Oyo State, Mr Adoda however said that he would be
charged to court after the completion of investigation.
Mr Clement Adoda, who spoke on behalf
of the Commissioner of Police, Mr Mbu Joseph Mbu, said that the command had
mapped out strategies to dislodge armed robbers who were still carrying out
their nefarious activities in the state, while he warned motorcycle riders not
to loiter or park in front of banks again, saying that robbers using okada had
been trailing their victims that way and dispossessing them of their cash and
other belongings.
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