A student, Olawale Ayomide, has accused officers attached to the Igbeba police station in the Ijebu Ode area of Ogun State of extorting N99,000 from him.
The victim, who narrated his ordeal to PUNCH Metro on Thursday, said the incident occurred on Tuesday, adding that one of the officers forgot his official cap in his vehicle after allegedly perpetrating the act.
According to Olawale, the policemen stopped him while he was travelling in his mother’s vehicle from Sagamu to Ijebu-Ode and accused him of driving a car without a number plate.
He said that despite explaining that the car belonged to his mother, who was still processing the registration documents, the officers ignored him and insisted he should follow them to their station.
He said, “I was heading to Ijebu-Ode from Sagamu when I encountered some policemen along the road. They stopped us and asked my friend and me to step out of the vehicle. The car belongs to my mum, and she’s currently processing its documents.
“Without telling us our offence, they entered the car and ordered us to follow them to their station. On our way, we asked what our offence was, and they claimed we were driving a vehicle without a number plate. We explained the situation to them and even offered to call my mum to confirm ownership of the car, but they refused and insisted on taking us to the station.
He alleged that the officers later demanded N1m on their way before they could release them, adding that they threatened to seize the vehicle if he refused to pay.
“Eventually, they asked us to park close to the station and said they would settle for N100,000 after going back and forth. And since they wouldn’t let us go, I called my phone dealer and told him I wanted to sell my second phone so he could send me the money. When I received the alert, the officers took me to a PoS terminal, where I finally transferred the N99,000 to them.”
Another student, Dare Ifeanyi, who was with Olawale in the vehicle, alleged that the officers took them to a police station nearby and compelled them to write a false statement under duress.
He further alleged that the policemen dictated what they should say in both written and video statements.
“They asked us to deny that they collected money from us and to claim that we were Internet fraudsters. They also told us to say the vehicle didn’t belong to our mum but that we bought it for N5m from the proceeds of fraud. We refused at first, but they threatened to detain us, so we did as they said,” Ifeanyi recounted.
The victims were eventually released after complying with the officers’ instructions.
However, in a twist, the duo said they later found one of the officers’ caps inside the car when they got home.
“We discovered a police cap on the back seat at home. We explained what happened to Ayomide’s mum,” Ifeanyi added.
When contacted on Thursday, Olawale’s mother, Mrs Omolabake, confirmed her ownership of the car.
She also expressed her displeasure over the development, saying she personally found the cap in the vehicle.
She said, “I saw the cap in the vehicle and asked my son where he saw it. Initially, he did not want to tell me what happened until after I persuaded him. This is not good at all. My name is on the document for the car. We are only processing the plate number. I felt bad when I was told they were recorded and asked to lie against themselves.
“I knew what they did was not good, and that was how it ended this way. My husband is not around now, and I am waiting for him to return before going to the station. They have to refund the money and delete the video they recorded.”
An activist and the Coordinator of the Take It Back Movement in Lagos, Adekunle Taofeek, also posted the development on X on Wednesday.
He wrote, attaching the said cap, “Someone sent this to me just now. Some policemen extorted my brother along the Ijebu Ode road, Egbeda, yesterday. They collected 100k illegally from him. Along the line, they forgot their cap inside his car. He was forced to sell his phone at gunpoint to settle them. Is that not kidnap for ransom?”
The Ogun State Police Command spokesperson, Omolola Odutola, could not be reached as calls made to her telephone were not responded to. A text message sent to her had yet to be replied to as of the time this report was filed.
The development comes amid a growing list of complaints by Nigerians over alleged extortion and harassment by police officers in the country.
PUNCH Metro in March reported that a young man, Ramadan Adenola, known as Netrovert on social media platform X, accused officers of the Nigeria Police Force of extorting him and his coworker during a stop-and-search operation in Lagos.
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