In a series of viral video clips that were circulated recently in numerous social medial platforms, including the Osogbo Professionals Association whatsApp’s platform, the Speaker of the House of Assembly of Osun State, 38-year-old Honorable Adewale Egbedun, was shown apprehending a number of heavily armed police officers at a police checkpoint around Ido-Osun near Osogbo, the state capital of Osun State after these officers allegedly extorted money from a number of youths that plied the road where the police officers mounted bribe collecting, and plausibly illegal, police check point.
Honorable Egbedun was showing physically angry while demanding from these police officers the identification of the police officer or officers that extorted money from a number of youths that were recently fleeced by these officers in Nigerian police uniforms.
One of the video clips showed Honorable Egbedun dunning a police officer while this officer was on his cellphone with his superior plausibly narrating how his team fleeced three youths N75,000 at that same police check point on or around August 10, 2023. It was reported that the Osun State Commissioner of Police, CP Patrick Kehinde Longe, promised to take immediate action against these herring law enforcement officers who were using their guns to rob, instead of protecting, ordinary Nigerians.
We all expected these supposedly law enforcement agents who were supposed to be protecting, not extorting, the same Nigerians they were terrorizing to be beacon of hope, discipline and incorruptibility in Nigeria. Unfortunately, these same law enforcement agents have been witnessed numerously breaking the same laws they are supposed to be enforcing. This was about the first time a serving politician would be bold enough in Osun State to take the bull by the horn and callout these law breakers in uniform.
We commend the gallant effrontery of Honorable Egbedun who demonstrated bravery by letting these law breakers know that it is no longer a business as usual in Osun State. We hope that this will be the beginning of stemming this form of illegality in our society.
We also hope that CP Patrick Kehinde Longe will make the outcome of his investigation and the disciplinary actions taken against these alleged law breakers known to all Nigerians in order to serve as deterrent to other law enforcement agents and bribe takers.
Leave a Reply