By Adebayo Aare
Commercial riders at Ojoo market park have accused men of the Ojoo Division, Oyo State Police Command of extortion and victimisation.
On October 17th 2022, a commercial cab driver who simply identified himself as Olusola was accosted by a mufti wearing police officer for parking at the wrong place. This cab driver was arrested while waiting for his cab to be filled with passengers.
Olusola told MAP NEWS that he had to part with five hundred naira after several minutes of pleading with the police officer. He further explained that he wasn’t the only one who was arrested at that point as he met two of his colleagues also pleading with the officers
Another commercial driver who refused to disclose his identity for fear of victimisation explained that this pattern of arrest was a norm for drivers at the park.
““it’s nothing new”, he said. “Many people have been accosted there and they know that you cannot refuse to pay them because you are on your own job and you cannot afford to spend the whole day pleading with policemen.”
A tricycle rider, Adesope Isiaka Abiola noted that it is hard to tell when the police officers are on duty as they sometimes hide in order to “catch” drivers and accuse them of breaking the law so they can pay for it.
“You know there are times they will need money and they know that commercial drivers won’t dare to break the law once they see them on duty,” he explained.
When asked if the situation was the same with tricycle riders in the market, Abiola said, “we pay in other ways”
“They don’t arrest us”he said. “You know, this is where we work, this is our own base, and the policemen know all of us. Even the DPO does. So, they only come to us directly to ask for money. They don’t arrest us once we don’t break the traffic rules. But when they need to go out and they are not using their patrol vehicle, they come to our park to pick a rider to take them on patrol and we take them but they won’t pay us for that. It’s more like a sacrifice to prevent being victimised. if you don’t take them, you may be marked for punishment in the near future. So, it’s always better to take them out. Otherwise, they will mark you and profile you for an offense you didn’t commit and you will end up paying more than it would have cost you to take them out”, noted the tricycle rider.
Abiola further revealed that one of his colleagues was once profiled after he refused to take a police officer out for a private outing because his tricycle was in a bad condition and it took the plea of their chairman for the police officer to accept three thousand naira to let go of the man.
When contacted, the public relations officer of the Oyo State Police Command, Adewale Osifeso urged the commercial drivers to write a petition to the office of the state commissioner of police in order to enable him take appropriate action on the matter.
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