Heated argument occurred in Apapa Lagos state, following physical combat between some policemen and members of the Ports Standing Task Team, over the release of a suspect.
A source who spoke with newsmen said some suspects were arrested on weekend, by the Ports Standing Task Team for allegedly extorting money from truck drivers at the port corridor and was reportedly taken into custody at the Area ‘B’ Command, Apapa.
Upon interrogating the suspects, the Commander, Area ‘B’, ACP Umar Dikwa, was said to have ordered the release of one of the suspects, promising to produce him when needed.
He said the demand was turned down by the Task Team, who insisted on moving the suspects from Area ‘B’ to the detention facility of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, for further investigation, “but the Area Commander resisted the move.”
The source went ahead to explain that about nine members of the task team were detained, stripped of their phones, their cameras seized and the contents in the memory card deleted by the Police.
In the heated argument over the movement of the suspects to the ICPC cell in Ikoyi, Lagos, the Coordinator of the Team, Moses Fadipe, who was said to be among those harassed, got the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali involved, the IGP in turn gave strick directive to the Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Alabi to have the six suspects moved to the ICPC detention facility in Ikoyi.
Speaking on the incident the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, told newsmen that the ACP did not know members of the Presidential Task Team hence their maltreatment.
