Policemen Arrested For Extorting Osun-Osogbo Festival Travellers

Some Policemen have been arrested by Osun State Police Command for allegedly extorting travellers going to Osun-Osogbo festival.

The arrest followed a quick intervention of Osun House of Assembly Speaker, Hon. Adewale Egbedun who confronted the policemen on the spot of the extortion and mandated them to refund the money back to the owner.

Reacting to the issue on his official social media page, the Force Public Relation Officer, prince Olumuyiwa Adejobi confirmed the arrest of the officers, promised that the necessary action would be taken.

Commissioner of Police Osun State, CP Kehinde Longe, has acted on this. The officers have been arrested, and necessary action would be taken. The PPRO osun has been ordered to update us on the actions taken. We have zero tolerance for extortion and corruption in general.

“The IGP has made it clear severally. In fact, at the last IGP’s conference with senior officers in abuja on Tuesday, the IGP warned that no officer should bring money or gifts to him.

“He said, “I dont need your money. Dont bring any money to me. Use your legitimate money to improve the policing of your area of responsibility. ” So this goes a long way to describe the stuff the IGP is made of and the type of leadership he preaches in the NPF.

“So, no officer should use IGPs name to extort. No way. We have sent out IGP’S monitoring squad to arrest any erring officer, not only the Police, but other law enforcement agents who dwell in corruption and inappropriate behaviours.

“This is the original tradition, and we are reverting back to it. We need to sanitise our system and work with the government at all levels to inject sanity and decency into our system in all ramifications. Thanks.”

However, the Honourable Speaker Osun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adewale Egbedun has charged Nigerians to be responsible citizens in whatever role they find themselves, noting that the answer to a better society that we all yearn for is a collective duty.

This was contained in a release signed by Olamide Tiamiyu, Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker late Thursday.

According to the release, the speaker gave the charge on Thursday evening while reprimanding some police officers caught extorting citizens on the road at Ido-Osun area, reiterating his commitment to uphold the oath he sworn to while taking office.

Egbedun was returning from a trip to Ayedire Local Government when some distressed citizens flagged his vehicle to complain on the illicit activities of the men of the Police force for intervention.

The victims who were traveling for the Osun Osogbo festival scheduled for tomorrow, narrated their ordeal in the hands of the officers.

They added that the policemen who refused all pleas to allow them go on their journey, eventually forced the three among them to make a transfer of twenty-five thousand naira each.

When approached to hear their sides of the story, the leader of the police team confirmed to the Speaker that they collected the quoted amount from the three commuters and pleaded for forgiveness.

Egbedun used the opportunity to address the commuters and passers-by who stopped to witness the incident to stress that it is our collective responsibility to sanitize the state. He added that if as citizens, we are willing to be responsible, the society will be better for us to live.

He then called the Osun State Commissioner of Police, Kehinde Longe to report the conduct of his personnel to him, who immediately summoned the officers to the State headquarters for possible disciplinary action.

Policemen Arrested For Extortion After Intervention Of Osun Speaker pic.twitter.com/qla8OxKPnC

— Abidoye Thomas Ibukun (@thomas_abidoye) August 11, 2023