The Delta State Commissioner of Police, Olufemi Abaniwonda, has ordered an investigation into the alleged theft of a vehicle in a church and its subsequent conversion into a patrol vehicle by a division of the command.

An X user, @ChuksEricE, on Wednesday posted a video of one Ogoro Matthew, who resides in Warri, pleading for assistance to recover his vehicle, which was stolen in 2015 and has since then been in the possession of the police.

Mr Matthew, in the video, said, “I went to a church program on November 13, 2015. As we closed the program, when I came out, I didn’t see my car again. I searched for it to no avail, so I went to Ekpan Police Station to report. They told me to do papers indicating ‘stolen vehicle.’ I printed the papers, gave them, I even distributed them all over the place.”

“After two years, I discovered the vehicle with the police, Ekpan division. They converted my vehicle to their own use. They wrote ‘Jakpa Raiders’ on it. Someone advised me to take the matter to court. On July 19, 2018, the High Court fined them to pay me N10 million. While I was waiting for them to pay me, they appealed against the judgment.”

Wondering if the police were trying to claim ownership of his vehicle, the victim accused the police of oppressing him because he doesn’t have a helper, adding that since it was the vehicle he was using to manage himself, the theft has made feeding and paying for his house rent difficult.

Responding to the allegation, the spokesperson for the command, Bright Edafe, in a statement on X, said the police commissioner “has ordered an investigation into the matter. It happened a long time ago and almost all key actors in the matter have retired. However, injustice is injustice and that’s what the CP does not tolerate. It doesn’t matter how long it happened, the man has a valid case and it will be looked into as directed by the CP.”