Police Inspector Faces Trial For Stealing Motorcycle Recovered From Robbers   

MICHAEL AKINOLA

The Office of the Provost of the Lagos Police Command has arrested and detained a police Inspector, Dacha Ibrahim, for allegedly diverting and stealing a Bajaj motorcycle that was recovered from armed robbers by local  vigilante group.

P.M.EXPRESS learnt that Inspector Ibrahim, who is attached to Police Border Patrol at Seme, was ordered arrested and transferred to the Office of the Provost for disciplinary actions by the Area Commander, Area K Command, ACP Hope Okafor, after receiving the report.

The suspect, P.M.EXPRESS correspondent gathered at the Police Headquarters, Ikeja, Lagos, is now cooling off his heels at the detention facility of the Police Provost Section where he was said to be undergoing departmental orderly room trial.
This is even as some communities in the area said that they had incessantly suffered similar treatment in the hands of some corrupt uniformed men and therefore commended the Area ‘K’ Commander, ACP Hope Okafor, for not shielding the embattled Inspector Ibrahim despite pressure from some quarters.

It was gathered that on 29th March, 2019, four robbery suspects identified as Mutiu Lawal, Taiwo Tosin, Kareem Aderintan and Adesina Wasiu, allegedly conspired and robbed the said Bajaj motorcycle belonging to one Emmanuel Nonye Godwin, a resident of Oke-Egbe community.

Two of the robbers were said to have been arrested by members of the vigilante group and the stolen motorcycle recovered from them.             An eye witness said that it was in the course of questioning the suspected robbers that Inspector Ibrahim drove to the crime scene in his Honda car and identified himself as a police Inspector. He was said to have volunteered to carry both suspects and those that apprehended them to Morogbo Police Division for proper investigation.

However, on the way to the police station, Inspector Ibrahim was said to have deceived and discharged those that apprehended the robbers after he gave them N500 each as transport fare to return to their homes while promising to take the robbers to the police station. It was alleged that the Inspector drove off with the robbers to an unknown location where he threatened the robbers and discharged them to escape. Ibrahim was said have diverted the stolen motorcycle recovered from the robbers to his house where he kept it for his private use.

Problem started when one of the residents, who later discovered that the case was not reported at the police station, insisted on recovering the motorcycle. In the course of their search, one of the robbers that escaped named Adesina was rearrested and taken to the police station at the directives of ACP Okafor. In Adesina’s confessional statement to the police, he was said to have narrated how Inspector Ibrahim freed them and took away the stolen motorcycle.

The Divisional Police Officer, Morogbo Police Division, SP Adigba Johnson, could not apprehend the fleeing Inspector Ibrahim and ACP Hope Okafor was contacted. The Area Commander, ACP Okafor, who insisted that the Inspector General of Police and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Zubairu Muazu, have zero tolerance for corruption then mobilised some officers which led to Ibrahim’s arrest.
It was learnt that despite obvious pressures from many quarters, the Area Commander provided all support and logistics that led to the arrest of Inspector Ibrahim on 25th April, 2019.
Ibrahim was transferred to the Provost’s office for orderly trial while the suspected robbers were charged to Court.

When P.M.EXPRESS correspondent contacted the Area Commander, ACP Hope Okafor, she did not pick the calls. However, at the Provost’s office, a source said that the Police have started investigating the matter to know if Ibrahim was culpable.