NAN-DS-5
Warning
By Moses Omorogieva
Lagos, April 26, 2017 (NAN) The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Mr Fatai Owoseni, has warned officers, especially the Station Officers (SOs) against extortion and other forms of corruption.
Owoseni gave the warning on Wednesday during the closing ceremony of a week-long re-orientation course for SOs at the Police Training School, Ikeja.
Owoseni, who described the SOs as the engine room for all divisions and area commands, however,noted that many of them had not lived up to their job description.
He said:“Do not let anybody to use you as instrument of extortion.The condition in the police may be hard, but you should do your best.
‘’You are not permitted to obey unlawful order. You were trained to obey lawful order.
“If you are requested to bring money from unlawful order, say no to it. The senior officer may remove you as SO, that is better that extorting the public that will place curse on you.
“Inspector cadre is the most important rank in the police force. It is unfortunate today that many wear inspector’s rank with grudges.
‘’You should correct the rank and don’t belittle yourself.
“It is not about bribery, eye service. What I want is quality service. We want you to be a change agent.
‘’We know there are challenges in various stations, let make use of what we have.
“We are to be proactive, dialogue and resolve conflict without gun.”
Owoseni said that the course was meant for defaulters in the command.
He said that after the first set of defaulters went through the training; their testimonies showed that the training should be extended to others.
“Those we thought were the bad eggs, after their re-orientation training, they became one of the best in the command.
‘’That is why we decided to extend it to all in the command. This batch is purely for station officers.”
Earlier, the Commandant of the school, ACP Kayode Egbetokun, said the SOs of batch 45, comprising 67 Inspectors were drawn from all divisions of the command.
Egbetokun, who said about 2,655 ranks and files as well as inspectors had been trained so far, urged the officers to put service first before money.
Highlight of the occasion was the presentation of certificate to the participants by Owoseni. (NAN)
MIO/OSA/DUA
Edited by Shittu Obassa/Dada Ahmed