By Michael Ofulue, Osogbo

Speaker, Osun state House of Assembly, Adewale Egbedun has charged Nigerians to be responsible in whatever role they find themselves, noting that collective responsibility is the answer to a better society.

The Speaker gave the charge on Thursday evening while reprimanding some police officers caught extorting citizens along Ido-Osun area, reiterating his commitment to uphold the oath he sworn to.

Egbedun while returning from a trip to Ayedire local government was flagged down by some distressed citizens who complained about the illicit activities of the men of the Police force.

The victims who were traveling for the Osun Osogbo festival scheduled for Friday, narrated their ordeal in the hands of the officers. 

They added that the policemen who refused all pleas to allow them go on their journey, eventually forced the three among them to make a transfer of twenty-five thousand naira each.

When approached to hear their sides of the story, the leader of the police team confirmed to the Speaker that they collected the quoted amount from the three commuters and pleaded for forgiveness.

Egbedun used the opportunity to address the commuters and passers-by who stopped to witness the incident, stressing that it is a collective responsibility to sanitize the state. 

He added that if as citizens, we are willing to be responsible, the society will be better for us to live.

He called the Osun State Commissioner of Police, Kehinde Longe to report the conduct of his personnel to him.

The officers have been summoned to the State headquarters for possible disciplinary action.

A twitter user, with the handle @inside_ijesha, had tweeted the viral video of the Speaker’s intervention following extortion of some youths by police officers at an undisclosed check point in the state.

Reacting to the tweet, the Force Public Relation Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, stated that the state commissioner, CP Kehinde Longe, has acted on the issue, adding that officers involved have been arrested.

“The Commissioner of Police Osun State, CP Kehinde Longe, has acted on this. The officers have been arrested, and necessary action would be taken. The PPRO osun has been ordered to update us on the actions taken. We have zero tolerance for extortion and corruption in general,” Adejobi confirmed.

Continuing, the Force PRO stated that the IGP has earlier warned officers not to bring money or gift to him, adding that IGP Egbetokun has zero-tolerance for extortion. According to him, IGP monitoring squad has been sent to any erring security agents indulging in corrupt practices.

“The IGP has made it clear severally. In fact, at the last IGP’s conference with senior officers in Abuja on Tuesday, the IGP warned that no officer should bring money or gifts to him.

He said, “I dont need your money. Dont bring any money to me. Use your legitimate money to improve the policing of your area of responsibility. ” So this goes a long way to describe the stuff the IGP is made of and the type of leadership he preaches in the NPF.

So, no officer should use IGPs name to extort. No way. We have sent out IGP’S monitoring squad to arrest any erring officer, not only the Police, but other law enforcement agents who dwell in corruption and inappropriate behaviours.

“This is the original tradition, and we are reverting back to it. We need to sanitise our system and work with the government at all levels to inject sanity and decency into our system in all ramifications. Thanks,” Adejobi tweeted.