A police officer has incurred the wrath of the public after he injured a nursing mother and her baby in a desperate bid to extort money.
File photo
The policeman seriously injured the nursing mother and her son after he caused an accident by attempting to extort N100 from a commercial motorcyclist, Okadaman, in Ondo town, Ondo State.
According to Vanguard, eyewitness account said trouble started when a team of anti-crime police officers attached to one of the police stations in the town allegedly mounted a road block in one of the major roads.
It was learned that one of the officers, in an attempt to stop the Okada rider, pulled down the boy and mother, while the motorcycle was in motion.
Mother and child were rushed to the hospital, while commercial motorcycle operators staged a peaceful protest to show their displeasure over alleged incessant extortion by policemen in the town.
Vanguard reports that the protest, which started at about 9:30a.m. was led by leaders of the association.
They reportedly protested to all the three divisional police stations in the town. Spokesman of Okadamen, Timilehon Akinrolabu, condemned the attitude of the policemen, who he said were in the habit of extortion at illegal road block in strategic locations in the town.
He said: “We decided to embark on the peaceful protest to tell the police that we are tired with the way they extort money from our members.
“This is common when the month is about to end as they would be looking for their monthly contributions, at times they usually used their patrol vehicles to raid our parks and arrest our members over flimsy excuses.”
However, the state police command has, however, denied the allegation of extortion by its officers.