Policeman Seizes KAI Official's Phone for Taking Bribe

 Kai officials at work

The law caught up with an officer of the Lagos State Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), on Wednesday night, when a police officer seized his cell phone for allegedly taking bribe from a bread seller.

The drama took place on the premises of Motorway building on the Lagos Ibadan Expressway, Oregun, Ikeja, and threw the area into confusion as the two KAI officers, who had come to arrest street hawkers fled to save themselves from being mobbed.  

The police officer, Mr A. Abdulahi, who was attached to the building, said that he had seized the mobile phone because the KAI officers could not provide the receipt of the alleged money they took from one Mrs Josephine Mbanefo.

According to him, the KAI officers had stormed the car park belonging to Motorway to arrest food vendors without seeking permission from the private security and the policemen attached to the area.

As part of his effort to forestall the breakdown of law in the area, the police had intervened and had to seize the mobile phone pending when the KAI officers would produce receipt of the money collected from Mbanefo.

Speaking, Mbanefo, who sells bread at the park, alleged that two KAI officers apprehended her while selling bread loaded in her car. She said that the officers drove her to the KAI unit, Alausa, where they collected N12,000 from her.

She stated that the officers refused to give her receipt for the money she paid, but instructed her to write an undertaking not to sell in the place anymore.

According to Mbanefo, the KAI officers also seized her car key, but released it after she had paid N1,000 as gate fee at the KAI office.However, another set of KAI officers, assisted by the state Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences, returned to the scene two hours later to collect the mobile phone, but they were resisted by securitymen who wanted them to provide the receipt of the N12,000.