2 days Ago
Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force allegedly abducted and extorted a 100-level student of Lagos State University (LASU), Izuchukwu Martins, on Wednesday, forcefully taking ₦500,000 from him after dragging him into a commercial bus at gunpoint, a report by SaharaReporters has shown. The incident occurred around the Abule Ado area in Lagos. In this notorious zone, policemen in and out of uniform have reportedly turned road patrols into an extortion ring.
Narrating his ordeal to SaharaReporters, Martins, a Political Science student, said he was going to visit his uncle when the officers pounced. “Yesterday (Wednesday), I was going to my uncle’s side, and as I reached Abule Ado area, the bike man (commercial motorcyclist) already told me that police officers normally harass boys around that area—Abule Ado bus stop, the bridge there. So the bike man told me to come down and trek so that I can avoid them,” he began.
“As I came down, I did not know they had seen us from afar. As I was walking forward, two policemen without uniforms approached me. They were armed, they were holding guns, but not in uniform.
They dragged me inside the Korope (minibus). I was shouting, but they dragged me inside forcefully." Inside the commercial bus, he was stripped of his phone and wristwatch as the officers combed him, hoping to find anything incriminating.
But when they found nothing, they zeroed in on his bank account. He continued: “They started searching me. They did not see anything implicating because I don’t smoke.
I don’t do all these kinds of things. They were trying to beat me and I asked them what I did? They asked me to open my phone, and I did. They checked my phone, and they started checking through my messages, and they saw my account balance.
” Martins revealed that although he had nothing criminal on his phone, the officers began making outrageous demands. “They demanded ₦5 million before they could release me. There were three policemen with me inside the Korope—one was in uniform, and the other two who arrested me were without uniform.
The one in uniform was the driver. They started driving, we passed Agboju, and they kept moving forward without heading to any station.” At one point, the officers accused him of being a fraudster simply for having pictures of foreigners on his phone.
“I kept asking them what I did to warrant my arrest? That was when they said they saw Oyinbo (foreigners) pictures on my phone. I asked them, is that why I should pay ₦5 million? How would I gather that kind of money? I’m a student.” Desperate and terrified, Martins offered to give them ₦20,000, which the officers scoffed at.
“I offered to give them ₦20,000, but they told me, ‘Do we look hungry?’ and rejected it. That was when they demanded ₦500,000, which I did not know they had seen on my account balance. I told them I can’t afford that money, but they insisted I had it and showed me my account balance.
” He was then threatened and coerced into transferring the money to an Opay account one of their colleagues provided. “They did not give me their personal account. So they called one of their colleagues, who gave us an Opay account, and I paid them twice.
I don’t know their names, but if I see them, I can recognise them,” he said. SaharaReporters learned that a pro-democracy group, Take-It-Back Movement, has been briefed about the matter. “I have called the Area E commander on the matter, and he told me we should write a petition and bring the victim along for proper identification of the police officers,” Take-It-BackMovement Lagos Coordinator, Adekunle Adeyemi Taofeek, told SaharaReporters.
As of the time of filing this report, the Lagos Police Command Spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, has yet to respond to a message seeking his reaction to these developments..
