Two policemen attached to the Ikeja office of Hakeem Odumosu, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, are demanding a bribe of N500,000 to release Tochukwu Ugah, who has been illegally detained since Sunday for allegedly using the phone of his housemate’s guest to borrow N4,000 recharge card from MTN on July 10.

The Investigating Police Officer (IPO) of the case, Inspector Balogun, also known as ‘Balo’, and Officer Wole, the Assistant IPO, are the two policemen handling the case, reported by the victim, Kolawole Kolade.

Ugah, a resident of Ikorodu in Lagos, shares an apartment with his two friends, Moses Anyawu and Ifeanyi, nicknamed ‘Bobby’. Bobby, the main suspect, has not been seen in the house for over a week and the Police are not looking for him, FIJ was told.

Moses Anyawu, Kolade’s host, said he had begged the complainant to withdraw the case against Ugah but he refused, thereby giving the policemen an avenue for extortion.

“I begged my friend Kolade that he should allow the Police release Ugah but he didn’t listen,” Anyawu told FIJ.

“Kolade is insisting that the person who borrowed MTN airtime on his phone to browse without his knowledge had also hacked his Facebook account to solicit funds from his online friends. I know Ugah cannot do that because he doesn’t even have an Internet-enabled phone.”

But Kolade told FIJ he has evidence that the intruder defrauded some of his online friends. He added that he has suffered untold humiliation as a result of the breach of privacy.

He also said he had “personally phoned Bobby to convince him to come around but he was just arrogant over the phone, trying to exonerate himself from the offence”.

On Ugah’s detention, Kolade diclosed that he had told the Police to release him since Thursday.

Unknown to Anyawu and Kolade, Inspector Balogun and Officer Wole, on Friday afternoon, asked Nwadike Valerian, the detainee’s lawyer, to pay N500,000 bribe to secure Ugah’s release.

“I have never seen this kind of thing before,” Nwadike said. “The IPO said if I can’t pay N500,000 to secure the release of my client, I should at least drop N300,000 with his boy Wole.”

“He said if I can’t do that today, I should do it whenever I like, which would be the same day they will release Ugah.”

READ ALSO: Policeman in Lagos CP’s Office Demands N150,000 to Free Innocent Detainee

FIJ is also aware that the Complaint Response Unit, an arm of the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, had ordered Ugah’s release but the IPO told the family it could be done because of the Eid holiday. 

“I have even offered to stand as Ugah’s surety but he didn’t agree,” a friend of the police detainee, who simply identified as Adams, said.

This is not the first time in 2021 that FIJ would report about the illegal detention and extortion of policemen in the CP’s office this year.

In mid-May, another officer similarly demanded a N150,000 bribe to release a painter illegally detained for 20 days. The attention of AbdulFatai Adebayo, a top officer in the Command, was drawn to FIJ’s report, prompting the immediate release of the victim. 

When contacted at about 3:15pm, Adebayo said he would like to see all the parties involved, including the reporter, to resolve the issues.