DPO indicted for asking PoS operators to pay N10,000 as bail after raid

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Akinpelu divisional, Lagos Command, has been indicted after her men ‘unjustly’ arrested eight Point of Sale (PoS) operators in the Mafoluku, Oshodi area of the state.

In a video that had since gone viral on social media, the PoS operators made startling allegations against the DPO and her men, as they described their arrest as unjust.

According to the PoS merchants, they were arrested, detained, and asked to pay N10,000 each for their release on the instruction of the DPO.

Adesina Ogunlana, the Chairman of Radical Agenda Movement of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), who was seen with the arrested PoS operators after they were released from detention, said the DPO embarked on the rain over a memo she alleged incriminated the business.

Ogunnlana revealed that the DPO of Akinpelu police station, Bolade Oshodi, Lagos, raided the stalls and shops of about eight PoS operators on Sunday , July 3, 2022.

“The DPO reportedly told her captives that there is now a memo from the office of the IGP that it is illegal to run any POS business in the vicinity of a police station. When asked to produce the memo, the DPO declined.

“The arrested detainees were reportedly told to bail themselves out of detention with N10,000 each, while they should come back on Monday to effect the ’bail’ of their seized machines,” Ogunlana stated.

Reacting to the allegations against the DPO, the police spokesperson in Lagos, Benjamin Hundeyin said some PoS operators enable extortion by hanging around police stations.