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| DPO Ogundu |
For reasons we can't comprehend, the police in Lagos State have suddenly beamed their extortion light on newspapers and vendors in Lagos.
Some weeks ago, the police swooped on vendors at LAS Gate. They seized their papers and burnt. their grouse? They said the vendors, refused to 'pay them Christmas' money like other traders in the area.
Today, the Punch reports how the police swooped on vendors and demanded for N5000 bribe.
Quoting from Punch, "THE Divisional Police Officer attached to the Ogudu Police Division, Lagos State, Chioma Ajunwa, on Wednesday seized some copies of the day’s newspapers, including The PUNCH.
She was also said to have detained one of the vendors, Idongesit Obot.
Other vendors that escaped arrest said a sum of N5,000 was demanded for Obot’s bail.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Ajunwa,
an Olympic Gold medalist, who was recently posted to the division from
Meiran, led the team which swooped on the vendors around 7.30pm on
Wednesday.
She was said to have accused the vendors
of allowing readers crowd the Ogudu-Ojota Road, which led to traffic
obstruction in the area.
When our correspondent visited the station on Thursday, he met 53-year-old Obot, who said he slept behind the counter.
He said, “The officer in charge of the
station came to my newspaper stand around 7.30pm and packed all the
papers. They took them to the station. When I got there, they put me
behind the counter where I stayed till this morning.
“They have asked me to pay N5, 000 for
bail today (Thursday). Since I started this business about seven years
ago, I have never had this kind of problem from the local and state
governments. The police said the people coming to read newspapers were
obstructing traffic.”
Another vendor, whose papers were also
seized, Iniobong Evans, said for the past 14 years, he had been selling
papers at the junction without any disturbance.
Evans said, “It was the same offence
they said we both committed. I was not detained because I did not go to
the station. It was papa (Obot) that followed them. The DPO led the team
that took all the papers. I have lost between N30,000 to N50,000
because I won’t be able to sell the papers again.”
A newspaper agent in the area, Mr.
Arnold Adekunle, criticised the police for the action, saying it was an
attempt to extort the vendors."
I wonder how much they think vendors and newspaper owner make. Most paper these days don't survive on sales, but on advert. And how many advertisers do we have in the country?
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