Published 17th Dec, 2021

By Emmanuel Uti

Kunle Adenowo, a window treatment specialist, has recounted how some police officers attempted to kill him at a police station in Ikorodu, Lagos, after extorting N100,000 from him.

Adenowo was walking at a garage in Ikorodu around 11 am on Wednesday when some police officers alighted from a shuttle and began to call him a thief on top of their voices.

Adenowo did not know why he was called a thief but began to run from the officers who pointed their guns at him.

“I knew other angry people could join the police to beat me if I did not run away when the officers began to call me a thief. But I was tired and could not run far, so the officers caught up with me,” Adenowo told FIJ.

“They did not search my bag or ask me to give myself up for a search; they just shouted ‘Ole’. When they caught me, they dragged me like a thief on the ground and began to beat me. After a heavy punch landed on my neck, I passed out.”

An eyewitness told FIJ that everyone in the area came to the scene, thinking he had died. So the angry mob, who were already making videos, ordered police officers to “carry their corpse” to a hospital.

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The officers carried Adenowo and told the mob they were taking him to the hospital, but the mob prevented them from taking his bag.

When Adenowo regained consciousness, he found himself in a police station, lying on the ground with his clothes wet and stained.

“They poured water on me. Immediately they saw I had regained consciousness, they began to call me a cultist and thief. The officers asked me to take my shirt off. I obeyed. On seeing a tattoo on my body, they began to call me a senior cultist,” Adenowo told FIJ.

“I explained to them that I drew the tattoo when I was in Egypt and that the tattoo had no relationship with cultism, but they said if what I said was true, the angry mob would have allowed them to go with my bag. They claimed a gun must be inside my bag.”

One of the officers asked Adenowo to write a statement, but he said he would not do it without seeing the Divisional Police Officer (DPO).

“The DPO did not even hear me out. He described the people who asked his boys to take me to the hospital as cultists, adding that I was their leader. He said I was an axeman and that I stopped his men from doing their job,” said Adenowo.

The officers further told him that he would not be allowed to go if he did not bribe them. Seeing what had happened and fearing he might die in their custody, he did not hesitate to give in to their demand.

“I was uncomfortable with the atmosphere of the police station. And knowing I could die there, I agreed to bribe them. They took me to a nearby POS where I transferred N100,000 before they let me go,” Adenowo said.

“Since yesterday morning, I have been having a severe headache and cannot turn my neck well,” Adenowo told FIJ.

FIJ placed several calls to CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, the Lagos State Police spokesperson, but he did not answer them. At press time, he had not responded to a text sent to his phone.

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