Nigeria police officer demoted for extortion

The Nigeria Police Force in Abuja on Wednesday said it has demoted a police sergeant serving in the FCT Command to the rank of corporal for extortion.

A statement by Abayomi Shogunle, Head of the Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit, said the action followed a report to the complaint response unit.

Mr. Shogunle, an assistant commissioner of police, said that eight other officers also received varying degree of sanctions for professional misconduct.

He said the unit successfully resolved 636 cases out of the 822 complaints it received during the fourth quarter of 2016 from across the country.

He said that Lagos State Command topped the chart with 153 cases representing 18.62 per cent, while Kebbi Command recorded no single case since inception of the unit.

Mr. Shogunle added that the FCT and Rivers Commands followed Lagos with 130 and 116 cases, respectively.

“Kebbi and Jigawa Commands remained at the bottom with no case reported against them, while Taraba and Katsina state Commands recorded one case each during the period under review.

He said that 156 reported cases were found to be false in the last quarter of 2016, compare to the 96 in first quarter, 35 in second quarter and 51 in third quarter.

Shogunle said 30 reported cases were still under investigation, adding that phone calls topped channels of complaints to the unit with 591 calls.

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He said that police officers captured in recent viral online videos alleged of misconduct have been identified; apprehended and undergoing departmental actions.

Mr. Shogunle said that Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, had instituted a reward mechanism to reward police commands with zero case of police professional misconduct.

He said Mr. Ibrahim had mandated the unit to also attend to complaints of abuse of office, corrupt practices involving public and civil servants at all levels of government.

He stressed that to support the “Change Begins with Me” initiative of the Federal Government, the unit’s Call Centre at Force Headquarters was being upgraded to meet up with the added tasks.

Mr. Shogunle said the unit during the period under review distributed flyers in English and local languages to the 774 local government areas in the country.

He noted that the initiative had increased public awareness about the unit, leading to high public patronage via the various contact platforms.

“It is on record that the unit since inception has ensured timely investigations of reported complaint and appropriate punishment of erring police officers,” he said.

The unit was established by the police authorities to enable aggrieved members of the public reach out to the authorities through a 24-hours interactive platforms to seek redress in cases of alleged police professional misconduct.

The platforms, included Phone calls, SMS, WhatsApp, BBM, Twitter, Facebook and e-mail.

(NAN)