Police Inspector arrested over motorcycle theft
A police Inspector attached to the Area K Command, Lagos, has been arrested for allegedly stealing a Bajaj motorcycle at Ile-Epo, Morogbo, on the Lagos-Badagry expressway.
The arrest of the policeman, simply identified as Ibrahim, followed a complaint of assault against him by some community leaders who alleged that he was always in the habit of collecting motorcycles from their owners on the pretence that they were plying unapproved routes.
Ibrahim, who a police source confided was already undergoing orderly room trial at the Provost section of the Lagos State police command, Ikeja, Lagos, was said to have been arrested on April 25, 2019, with the stolen motorcycle allegedly recovered from his house.
Our correspondent learnt that on March 29, 2019, four robbery suspects, identified as Mutiu Lawal, Taiwo Toxin, Kareem Aderintan and Adesina Wasiu, conspired and stole the said Bajaj motorcycle belonging to one Emmanuel Nonye Godwin, a resident of the Oke-Egbe community.
Two of the robbers were said to have been arrested by vigilant residents and the stolen motorcycle recovered from them. One of the residents, Mr Afolabi Tunde, an automobile mechanic, alleged that it was in the course of questioning the suspected robbers that Inspector Ibrahim drove to the crime scene in his car and identified himself as a police Inspector.
He was said to have volunteered to carry both suspects and those that apprehended them to the Morogbo police Division for proper investigation. However, on the way to the police station, Inspector Ibrahim was said to have deceived and discharged those that apprehended the robbers, gave them N500 each as transport fare to return to their homes and promised to take the robbers to the station.
Tunde further alleged that the Inspector drove off with the robbers to an unknown location after he only threatened the robbers and discharged them to escape. The policeman was alleged to have then diverted the stolen motorcycle recovered from the robbers to his house.
Luck was, however, said to have run out on him when one of the vigilante guards rearrested one of the escaped robbers named Adesina and took him to the police station.
Adesina was said to have confessed that Inspector Ibrahim freed him and his other colleague and took away the stolen motorcycle.
According to the spokesman of the Oke-Egbe community, Chief Abel Sesinu, “The doggedness of the Area Commander, Assistant Commissioner Hope Okafor, is worthy of commendation. In crime fighting, she does not relent. And whenever you contact her, she is quick to respond.”
Chief Sesinu, who is also the chairman of the United Estates Association, Araromi, Lagos, lauded ACP Okafor for not shielding Inspector Ibrahim on the stolen motorcycle case.