Lagos State Police Command has cleared the air on the news that went viral about a police officer masturbating in a public vehicle, declaring that the man has no connection with the police.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said that the man had been identified as Mr Matthew, and only claimed to be a police officer as a form of deception.
Adejobi said: “The Lagos State Police Command wishes to inform the general public that the man allegedly caught in the viral video, in which a lady accused him of masturbating in a commercial vehicle on 13th March, 2021, has been identified.
“The man, simply identified as Mr Matthew, who assaulted the lady, one Olajumoke Okeyemi, for correcting his actions and act of sexual harassment in a public vehicle, is a driver employed by GTC Laundry Services, on Channels TV Road, Isheri, and not a police personnel as he claimed during the ‘drama’ in the video.
Thenewsbearer learnt that Mr Matthew was in a commercial bus from OPIC Estate, Isheri, to Mowe with the lady, when he resorted to verbal abuse and attempted to physically assault the lady for recording his indecent act on her phone.
In order to hide his identity, for reasons best known to him, Mr Matthew, allegedly claimed to be a police officer.
Adejobi said that the state command, in collaboration with the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team, Alausa, Ikeja, had commenced investigation into the matter, with efforts intensified to arrest the offender.
He stated further that the suspect also had been identified by some other women who had similar experiences with him in past years, along the same route.
The concerned women were said to have made series of comments on the social media, which the PPRO said would assist the police in their investigation.
Condemning such immoral and criminal act, with careless and unguided utterances, the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, said that the offender would not be allowed to drag the name of the Nigeria Police Force in the mud.
The state police boss warned that such an act is an offence under the law and would not be tolerated.
He also ordered the Gender Unit of the Command to expedite action on the case, arrest the suspect and commence proper investigation, so as to maintain sanity in the society and discourage others from engaging in such an act.
