Two Twitter users, @crazy_munach and @zeemyght, have narrated how police officers extorted N25,000 from them and brutalised Olayinka Lewis, an Ekiti State University student, on Tuesday.
@zeemyght told FIJ that officers of the Lagos Police Command, Ipaja Division, stopped him and his friend alongside Lewis around Baruwa.
“They stopped our Uber guy to check his paper and also search us. Next thing, they asked us to enter their van, requesting to check our phones. Then the guy Yinka refused to enter and they started beating him,” @zeemyght told FIJ.
“They hit him (Lewis) with a baton and subjected him to electric shock treatment. Yesterday (Tuesday) was a very bad day for us. We were looking for a new apartment, so we had a driver to transport us. The police officers stopped our driver and checked his papers. They then called us and asked for our phones.
“He (Lewis) refused to hand his phone over to them and they took all of us to their police station. They took us to a secluded area on the police station premises and started beating and strangling him.”
READ MORE: Lagos Police Torture EKSU Student Who ‘Committed No Crime’
@zeemyght told this reporter that the police officers threatened to shoot them and asked for N500,000.
@zeemyght said they eventually parted with over N25,000, which was paid into an OPay account, after the police officer became violent and they feared what might happen.
READ ALSO: Two Brothers Arrested, Extorted by Same Police Officers at Different Times
“They did not bother to check our phones anymore. They asked us to bail ourselves without committing any offence. These officers told us to go and raise N500,000. I told them to search my phone to see if they found anything that warranted I pay a N500,000 fine. But they started to torture Yinka because he refused to yield to their pressure,” @zeemyght told FIJ.
“We called a friend of ours to send money to us, and then we paid over N25,000 to an OPay account they provided. The officers were already torturing that guy (Lewis). We were scared.”
![Proof of Transfer](https://fij.ng/article/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/IMG_20220907_162148-1024x395.jpg)
![Proof of Transaction](https://fij.ng/article/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/IMG-20220907-WA0014.jpg)
Benjamin Hundeyin, Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, had claimed that Lewis and his brother lied.
“We need to desist from campaigns of calumny. I have listened carefully to your brother and his girlfriend and I have read his statement. Your brother Olayinka Lewis was never asked to admit to false claims. He was not extorted, neither was his phone searched,” Hundeyin tweeted on Tuesday.
Also, the personal assistant to Tokunbo Abaniwonda, the Ipaja Divisional Police Officer, told FIJ that the officers did not extort money from anyone on Tuesday.
Subscribe
Be the first to receive special investigative reports and features in your inbox.