News

I don’t drink – Police officer dismissed over alcohol viral video

Published

5 years ago

November 8, 2018

The reportedly drunk policeman caught on camera around Akowonjo, Dopemu area of Lagos State, was dismissed by the Police authorities yesterday.
However, the 42-year-old Police officer, Kadima Useni, with force number 176219, has said he does not take alcoholic drinks, but only seized the said bottle from some Police officers’ children.

A video footage of Useni, who was attached to Mobile Force Squadron 22 Base, Ikeja, holding an alcoholic drink bottle had gone viral on social media.

A Police source said: “The Inspector-General, Ibrahim Idris, directed the state Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, to fish out the erring policeman for appropriate disciplinary action.”

The source said when the erring policeman was eventually fished out, he denied drinking.

The source reported that Useni, who was looking very sober and remorseful, said he does not drink.

The source quoted Useni as saying “I don’t drink alcohol. I only collected a bottle from the children of police officers, who were carrying it. Later, I returned it. It didn’t occur to me that I was been videoed, while I held the bottle.”

Confirming the incident, the spokesperson of Lagos State Police Command, CSP Chike Oti, said when the officer was arrested and during interrogation, he affirmed that he was the one in the video.

He said: “He was, therefore, tried in an orderly room trial and summarily dismissed to serve as a deterrent to others.”

Oti added that Edgal also directed the officer in charge of the Command Provost Section to identify and shut all beer parlours within the Police community in the state to prevent re-occurrence.

He added that “in the same vein, the CP warns against members of the public offering policemen alcoholic drinks while on duty. He said henceforth, any policeman found drunk on duty will be visited with similar punishment.”