Police dismisses report on alleged demand of N400,000 bribe from Kwara street sweeper

The Kwara State police command on Thursday dismissed the report on the alleged N400,000 bribery by its operatives.

A Twitter user posted on the microblogging platform on Wednesday that police officers from the command demanded a N400,000 bribe from a grandmother, Awawu Abdulateef, to grant her bail from custody.

The command’s spokesman, Ajayi Okasanmi, who reacted to the claim in a statement in Ilorin, said sometime last July last year, a vehicle was snatched at gunpoint in Adewole area of the state capital and the owner’s phone was later traced to Awawu, who is a street sweeper.

He said: “The phone was tracked first to a young boy who claimed to have bought the phone from another young man; finally the phone was traced to the grandma and her daughter.

“The grandma, in her statement, claimed to have picked the phone on the ground while sweeping the street.

“And considering the serious nature of the case, she couldn’t have been allowed to go without thorough investigation, hence she was detained.

“Nobody seemed ready to stand surety for her, not even at the agency for which she claimed to be working. To worsen the situation, the courts were on strike and as such, she couldn’t be charged.

“Efforts by investigators to get a letter of identification from her workplace were not successful until yesterday (Wednesday).

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“This is contrary to the insinuation of the Twitter user that Awawu and her daughter, Baliqees, were kept in detention because she couldn’t raise the alleged N400,000 demanded for bail.”

He said the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Bagega, on receiving the report, questioned the grandma and members of her family who all denied the claim.

“They stated that nobody demanded any money from them neither did anybody tell them that police demanded money on their behalf.

“Regarding the alleged receipt of N200,000 from the two suspects earlier released over the phone issue, the command has promised a thorough investigation into the allegation of bribery against the officer.

“The grandma and her daughter have since been released on bail to her agency on the order of the commissioner of police,’’ Okasanmi added.

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