Lagos: CP Odumosu Under Fire Over Arrest of Women, Youths

Lagosians Call On, IGP, Sanwo-Olu To Intervene

 

By Fola James

Anger is still boiling in Lagos over failure by the state police command to release over 100 persons arrested across the state over trumped up allegations.

The videos of the suspects, mostly women and youngmen, sitting on the bare floor at the state police command headquarter, went viral on social media after they were paraded as criminals.

The state’s commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, few days ago paraded 114 persons as part of celebration to mark his first 55 days in office.

The suspects said they were picked up late in the night while sleeping in their homes.

Others were also arrested by policemen on their way back from work.

Nigerians have called on the Inspector General of Police, IGP to launch a probe into the matter after the video went viral.

Odumosu had boasted that the arrest was to show that he’s working to combat crime in the state.

“It is worthy to note that crime rate has drastically reduced within the period under review,” Odumosu said while parading the suspects at the state police command on January 8.

This doesn’t appear to sit well with some well meaning Nigerians who insist that the raid was an ego boosting trip by the CP to prove to his employers that he’s working.

The CP has been known to be very ruthless and uncivil, some say, adding that he has a track record of trampling on the rights on Nigerians wherever he served.

His critics insist that the CP court controversy anywhere he’s posted to work.

May be.

“In Kwara state where he served before his redeployment to Lagos, there are many allegations against him bordering on human rights.

I don’t know why someone like that is allowed to be the Lagos state police commissioner,” Gabriel Idiye, a rights activist told the magazine.

While berating the police on the matter, Prince Chukwuka said the Nigerian Police have no respect for Nigerians.

The analyst said the state police command should apologise to the suspects for trampling on their rights.

While speaking to journalists, some suspects said they were innocent and should not have been arrested.

Their foundamental rights have been violated and their image damaged after being paraded in public, the suspects said.

For instance, one of the suspects who simply identified herself as Mary said she was on her way back from Agege where she works as a casual worker when she was arrested by Odumosu’s men.

She has been locked up since then alongside other suspects with no hope of freedom except somebody is ready to bail her out.

Among those arrested is one Aminat who claimed that the policemen who arrested her, forcefully broke into her apartment at Ijora railway in the thick of the night.

The police has refused to disclose her offence, she said,
wandering why she’s been paraded as a criminal when she has not done anything wrong.

Some suspects who have secured their release told the magazine that they were made to pay huge sums of money before they were allowed to go.

It still remains a surprise, some say, for policemen to arrest law abiding Nigerians.

Lagosians have therefore called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the IGP to call Odumosu to order and stop him from harassing the residents of the state.

Meanwhile, the magazine learnt from the command that some of those arrested were actually criminals that have been disturbing the peace of the state.