Lagos policemen trick innocent ladies, deflate their tyres

Lagos policemen trick innocent ladies, deflate their tyres

Somtochukwu Ogu and Onyiyechi Ogu (not real names) have narrated to FIJ how police officers attached to the Akinpelu Police Station in Bolade Oshodi, Lagos, deflated their car tyres on Monday evening.

The two ladies told FIJ they were driving home through the Oshodi area of the state when the police officers stopped them and entered their vehicle.

They said these policemen then ordered them to drive through a route that led to their station.

While parked in front of the station, the policemen began deflating three tyres. Somtochukwu showed FIJ a video recording of the men perpetrating the act.

“We were going home, and used Google Maps as a guide,” Somtochukwu told FIJ. “The police stopped us and said the route we were about to enter was a one-way route, and we were about to enter wrongly, so we told them the map led us there.

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“They entered our vehicle as though they wanted to show us the right route, but as they were showing us where to drive to, we ended up in front of their station.

“When we came out of the vehicle and demanded to know what we were being accused of, they began deflating our tyres.”

She was able to identify two of the policemen as Ojelade Ebenezer and Akinpelu.

Somtochukwu told FIJ that after she and her sister observed the policemen’s act, they approached Nkiruka Ugwu, the station’s DPO, and laid a complaint.

Ugwu then ordered the men to repair the tyres and let the ladies go. She, however, did not initiate disciplinary actions against the policemen.

When FIJ called the Lagos Police Complaint Rapid Response Unit (CRU) on Tuesday morning, they asked that our reporter follow up with the DPO.

FIJ called Ugwu afterwards, and she appealed to FIJ to let the matter die a natural death as, according to her, she detained the policemen over the night and let them go in the morning.

FIJ found that Ugwu had in 2022 been accused of asking her policemen to arrest PoS operators around the station, and forcing them to bail themselves with N10,000 each.

FIJ called Benjamin Hundeyin, spokesperson for the Lagos Police Command, but he did not answer our calls. He also did not respond to a text message sent to him on Tuesday morning.