POLICE authorities in Lagos State have begun investigating an incidence of corruption during which men of the Area M Division refused to arrest an armed robbery suspect because he was not willing to bribe them for the service.

Apparently, robbery victim, Ayodele Oduniyi, was attacked by armed robbers and approached a policeman attached to the division identified only as Fatai, but was refused assistance because he refused to pay him a N15,000 (£50) bribe. According to Mr Oduniyi,  Fatai requested the sum to motivate his colleagues so that the robbers could be tracked down. 

However, Mr Oduniyi was only able to give the police N2,000 (£6.50), which was regarded as inadequate, hence no arrest was made. Mr Oduniyi had reported to the station that some robbers raided his apartment on Mati Olumuyiwa Street, Orelope, in the Egbede area of Lagos around 3pm on September 1.

It is believed that the robbers made away with valuables and Mr Oduniyi's automated teller machine card, which they later used to withdraw N100,000 (£325) from his bank account. Policeman Fatai had promised to send a letter to the bank to release the visuals of the person who carried out the transaction but had yet to do so, giving excuses whenever the victim met with him.

Recounting the incident, Mr Oduniyi said the fleeing robbers attacked two other houses on the fateful day but were only successful at his apartment before residents raised the alarm. Another victim said the robbers fled after he raised the alarm, adding that they did not succeed in his apartment.

Mr Oduniyi added: “I worked on my computer till 11.30pm that day before my wife and I decided to go to bed. All of a sudden, we saw our door wide open and two men with a gun and a torch came in.

“They ordered us to lie down and threatened to kill us and our child if we refused to cooperate. They took the N5,000 I had on me, my phone, Ipad and my wife’s two phones and they collected the ATM card of my GTB account and requested I gave the correct Pin or lose our child."

He added that while he was busy searching his wardrobe, he managed to see the face of one of the robbers and can recognise him if I sees him again. According to Mr Oduniyi, the policeman Fatai requested N15,000 to motivate his colleagues to track the robbers but he said he only had N2,000 which he gave him but the police were dragging their feet because they did not get all they asked for.

Lagos State Police Command spokesperson Joe Offor, promised to contact the police division and investigate the matter. He added that the case file and the details of the policeman handling the matter will be verified from the station.