Tony Abutu, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Meiran Police Station, has been fired due to allegations of extortion, according to Lagos State Commissioner of Police Idowu Owohunwa.
In a story published on Wednesday, Abutu was accused of leading a group of police officers assigned to his station in an attempt to extort N200,000 from phone dealer Ibrahim Saliu.
According to Saliu, problems began when police detained him and his brother Olaiya Murtala for failing to produce an identity card or the invoices for the iPhones that had been discovered with his brother.
He claimed that after the DPO instructed his men to arrest him and his brother for theft and armed robbery, he later demanded N500,000 from them in order to release them.
He claimed that they pleaded with the DPO until they agreed to exchange N200,000, and that one of the cops led him to a nearby POS operator where he withdrew N180,000 in addition to the N20,000 he was carrying and gave it to the policemen before they were freed.
However, the state police public relations officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, claimed on Wednesday that the CP had ordered the DPO’s removal in a post on his X (previously Twitter) account.
He continued by saying that all of the cops involved had been identified and were currently being tried in an orderly room.
“CP Idowu Owohunwa has ordered the immediate removal of DPO Meiran for leadership dereliction and supervisory incompetence,” the chief of police stated in a letter.
Meanwhile, the orderly room trial for all of the involved officers has begun at command headquarters, where they are currently located.