By EgbemaVoice
The decision by retired Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP, Isiagu Joseph to operate a commercial bus popularly called ‘Korope’ in Lagos, has earned him opprobrium and public disgrace by no less a person than a serving police Inspector.
The police officer, who was among officers who were retired last year over age of service , still being contested in court alleged that the Inspector accosted him while he was loading his bus in a motor park and publicly derided him by shouting to everybody’s hearing and asking: “how can a retired police CSP be driving korope? It is an insult to the force. If I retire, I cannot do that. I will live bigger than this?”
His story
“My name is CSP Isiagu Joseph. I was enlisted on 1st December 1988 and retired as a Chief Superintendent of Police on 1st December 2023, as a Divisional Police Officer. The date of enlistment became an issue and we’re in court. While the issue lingered, the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, sent for us in August 2024 and we were all sacked but the case is still in court for contempt. In order to fend for my family I got a commercial minibus called ‘korope’.
Encounter with Task Force
“In December last year, some members of Lagos State Task Force blocked me at the bus stop at Alausa Secretariat where we were waiting for passengers to go to Ikeja. One inspector came and started insulting me. I never met him before. I said, please, I’m a police officer and I showed him my identity card. Looking at it, he said, ‘he is a CSP useless man, and you are driving Korope. Are you not a useless CSP’? I didn’t talk to him. I saw a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, with him and I showed the DSP my ID card and they allowed me to go
“On another occasion, members of the Task Force blocked me with two ‘Korope’ vehicles and the same inspector came down and ordered his colleagues to remove the plate number of my vehicle. I didn’t talk to him. The civilian members of the task force reminded him that I was a senior police officer but he retorted; ‘he is a useless CSP driving Korope. Remove his plate number’. At that stage, I beckoned on the Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP, with them and he ordered him to return my plate number.
“Then, on the 8th of January this year, the same inspector came with three korope buses filled with civilians. They blocked and accosted me at the same place. The two policemen that came with them met me and I showed them my ID card. They saw that I am a police officer but the same inspector shouted again, ‘which useless CSP? Come and bring him down, push him out of the vehicle, drag him out of the vehicle.”
Arrest and seizure of vehicle
“One of them entered my vehicle, I showed him my ID card, but he was just watching. Then, the inspector said, ‘we must take this vehicle. I must carry you.’ I said, ‘okay, wherever you want us to go, let us go.’ He said no, they should drag me out of the vehicle. He opened my door, hit me on the shoulder and started to drag me while the people with him joined in beating me and they dragged me down from the vehicle. They were ten in number.
“They dragged me down, beat me mercilessly, snatched my keys, then zoomed off with the vehicle. As they were moving out I quickly jumped into one of their vehicles. They took me round Ikeja before finally arriving at Alausa secretariat of their office where they parked my vehicle.
Experience at
Task force office
“When I got there, one of the men that had worked with me at Isokoko where I was the DPO saw me and called the attention of others. I quickly told them that it was not attention matter and narrated my plight to them. They were shocked and they immediately conducted checks and discovered that my vehicle with serial number 17, SMK 424 YL was brought in by one Kabiru, one of the civilians working with them. I described the inspector that arrested me to them but they said they didn’t know his name. I was advised to wait that as soon as he arrived, my vehicle would be released. I was there from 6pm to 9pm.
“Eventually when the inspector came back around 9pm, he started embarrassing and calling me names again by saying ‘useless man, useless CSP. Look at you, you are driving korope, useless CSP. If I retire as an inspector of police, I have already made it. I can never drive korope.’ I don’t know whether my driving korope was an offence that I have committed. They did not demand any money from me. Since I started driving that commercial bus, I made sure I paid my duel
“After abusing me for long and refused to release the vehicle, I turned to leave in exasperation when he called me to go and take my vehicle but warned that I if I continued driving korope, he would still descend on me and no call from anybody would make him release it.
Forceful restriction
“That’s why I went home and parked my vehicle because with this kind of beating and dehumanization from an inspector of police, it’s like my grandchildren beating me. The inspectorate rank was a rank I dropped in the year 2003 and the child I gave birth to same year is already a graduate and getting married. So, what does he expect me to do? Is it not for me to die? How much is my pension? As a CSP, it’s not up to N40,000. The korope I am driving is what has made me to feed my family of six daily.”
Next step
“After parking the vehicle, I went to Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja and reported my plight to the Provost on the 9th of January, 2026. But he told me that because I could not identity the inspector properly, there was little he could do. He said this after I told him that the inspector is called Sylvester, attached to Lekki Task Force team.
Last lap
“I was frustrated and went to both the DCP Administration and AC X-squad. They were very sad. After sympathizing with me, they assured that they would fish him out but till date, I don’t know what action they had taken. I am waiting for the command to bring him. Let him come and tell me what I did to him. What is my offence?
If the command should say that I, as a CSP retired, driving korope is an offence, I will pack and go back to the village and die. I am highly demoralized that there is no discipline in the job again. That an inspector of police will organize people, order his boys, civilians, to beat up a CSP? He was boasting that as an Inspector, he has hotels and enough money to retire in affluence.
“While I was in the force, I pursued good name. Nobody would point accusing fingers at me and accuse me of extortion or bribe. But, see what I am getting from no less a person than an inspector of Police.”
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