The Osun State Police Command has revealed that it has identified and arrested police personnel captured in a viral video extorting passengers.
A video showing the speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Adewale Egbedun challenging the officers and rebuking them surfaced online on Thursday, August 10.
According to residents of the area, the officers station themselves along the road, stop motorists and extort money from them.
The speaker was said to be plying the road when he saw a crowd challenging the officers.
The speaker stepped down from his car and after being briefed on what transpired, challenged the officers and ordered that the officers refund the money extorted from the motorists.
The commuters it was also gathered were adherents of the Osun deity who were on their way to Osogbo for the annual Osun-Osogbo festival billed for Friday, August 11, 2023.
The video of what transpired had since gone viral.
The Police Commissioner, Patrick Kehinde Longe, in a statement by Yemisi Opalola, the Command’s spokesperson on Friday revealed that the police authorities in the state were aware of the viral video.
According to the statement, “This is to inform the general public that the Osun State Police Command is aware of the viral video trending on social media showing some policemen extorting commuters along Ile-Ogbo/Iwo axis.
“The Police officers involved in this unprofessional and unethical behaviour have been identified, arrested and detained.
“The police Command frowns and condemns the act in totality as the erring police officers are currently in detention since Thursday, 10/08/2023 and undergoing investigation and eventual disciplinary procedure of orderly room trial for their unprofessional conduct while the senior officer among them has been queried accordingly.”
CP Longe also reassured the members of the public that the he will not condone any act of indiscipline and unprofessional conduct under his watch.
