Policemen surrender after their inspector shoots motorcyclist for not paying N500 bribe

FOUR policemen serving with the Idimu Police Division in Lagos State have surrendered themselves for arrest after the head of their unit identified as Inspector Wahab shot a motorcyclist for refusing to pay a N500 (£1.70) security fee.

 

It is a common practise for policemen across Nigeria to collect bribes from commercial motorists and cyclists and security fee is one of the names used to disguise such illegal levies. This time, however, a collection went wrong at the Iyana Ishashi end of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway after a team of policemen engaged some tricycle and motorcycle riders in a fight and Inspector Wahab shot a motorcycle rider, identified as Biliaminu, popularly known as Bouncing.

 

Mr Biliaminu was said to have been rushed to a private hospital in the state where he has been placed in intensive care. All four policemen, who were attached to the highway patrol team in the Idimu Police Division, subsequently surrendered themselves to the nearest police station in the area.

 

They were later transferred to the state command headquarters and detained, as apparently, this was not the first time that they would go to the Iyana Ishashi bus stop on illegal duty. Motorcycle rider, Bidemi Ayeni, said the policemen’s greed caused the incident, which happened.

 

He added: “The practice here is that whenever the police come to the park, we give them N500. That happens every Friday and it is called security fee as we pay them so that they will not disturb us.

 

"We always rotate it among the three units in this park who are the motorcycle riders, the tricycle drivers and the Kelebe drivers.  Last Friday was the turn of the Kelebe drivers to make settlement and after they had paid, the policemen said the N500 was too small for them."

 

After this, one of the Kelebe drivers then went inside the park to plead with the chairman of the tricycle drivers, so that he would also pay. Somebody abused him for not minding his business and the people there said it was not their turn to pay, so the Kelebe driver went and reported to the policemen who sent him and the officers came inside the park and assaulted the tricycle drivers’ chairman.

 

Some thugs in the park and followers of the chairman were said to have attacked the Kelebe driver for his role in the incident. As the policemen moved to avenge the assault of the Kelebe driver, the park boys were said to have attacked the policemen with stones and other cudgels and the police repelled the attack.

 

During the incident, the police inspector was alleged to have opened fire on the victim, who was among the chairman’s supporters. Following the incident, the Lagos State police commissioner Fatai Owoseni sent a team to investigate what happened and talk to people in the park.