…CP Alabi fumes, arrests, detains policemen
Juliana Francis
Five policemen, including an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), attached to the Ajangbadi Police Station, Lagos State Police Command, have been arrested and detained on the orders of the State’s Commissioner of Police, Mr Abiodun Sylvester Alabi, after armed robbers posing as police detectives collected at least four guns from them.
Securitynewsalert.com gathered that the armed robbers, who were on mufti and driving a Camry car, accosted the five policemen at a checkpoint and pretended they came from X-Squad.
In most state police commands, operatives from X-Squads are detested and feared. They patrol different axis of the states, monitoring police conduct but mostly monitoring policemen extorting motorists on the roads.
They arrest such alleged corrupt policemen and can even cause them to be defaulted or dismissed.
Securitynewsalert.com heard that the robbers stepped out of their car and declared themselves as operatives from X-Squad, Lagos State Police Headquarters, Ikeja and ordered the policemen to submit themselves for a body search.
The leader of the accosted Police team, an ASP, handed his service pistol to the men without thinking twice. When his men noticed that he had surrendered, they also submitted their AK47 rifles.
The robbers further instructed the team of policemen to lie-faced down. As the robbers were driving away, they announced to the shock of the policemen that they were armed robbers and zoomed off.
Securitynewsalert.com heard that Alabi was furious with how the robbers exploited the naivety of the supposed seasoned policemen. Alabi ordered their arrest and detention.
It was also heard that Alabi had threatened to ensure they were all dismissed if they did not look for means of getting those rifles.
“Some hoodlums went to Ajangbadi Police Station jurisdiction and accosted a team of five policemen led by an ASP. The armed robbers told them to surrender their guns and themselves for a search. The armed robbers then asked them to lie face down and then told them that they were armed robbers. They went away with the rifles and the service pistol of the ASP,” said a source to securitynewsalert.com.
It was also learnt that Alabi has ordered that the policemen should be thoroughly investigated and charged in court.
Securitynewsalert.com gathered that Alabi was enraged because he had repeatedly warned, same as the Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, that on no account should any police personnel of the Nigerian Police Force submit their guns to operatives from, X-Squad Unit.
It was also gathered that this sort of drama, where fake Nigerian Police Personnel collected rifles while posing as operatives from X-Squad had happened before during the administration of a former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, prompting a circular to be circulated to police formations across Nigeria.
It was also a known rule among police personnel that CP’s Monitoring Units, otherwise known as X-Squads must book at the area command of the division they came to investigate before venturing further.
Just to ensure delimit occurrences of such incidents, operatives from X-Squads Units were given Hilux vehicles marked with the police logo.
The ASP, even after seeing that the armed robbers were driving a Camry car, wore no police uniforms, had no guns and had no means of identification, still submitted himself for a body search and thereby caused his men to do the same, after which he and his men handed a pistol and rifles to the armed robbers.
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