Adeyanju Ayodeji, a Twitter user and Lagos-based furniture maker, has narrated how he lost N60,000 to police officers who arrested him wrongfully on April 9.

In a series of tweets, Adeyanju said he was on a bike heading to Command in Ipaja, Lagos State, when the policemen stopped his bike at a checkpoint on Ikola bridge.

“They were not in uniforms, neither did they use the official police vehicle. They used a commercial minibus and ordered my bike man to park. Immediately he did, three policemen surrounded me and pointed guns at me. My heart flew out of my body,” he wrote.

@Princemoye1 Yesterday 9th of April , 2022, I was unlawfully arrested, bullied and extorted by the men of Nigeria Police force.

I was heading to command area of Ipaja. I took a bike from Abesan gate to command. We met a police check point at Ikola bridge.

— adeyanju ayodeji (@adeyanjuayodej6) April 10, 2022

Ayodeji said they dragged him into their bus and demanded that he hand over his phones to them. He stated that one of the policemen slapped him while he was still trying to bring out his phone from his pocket.

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“I never argued or said anything to them. Yet, I was slapped. They started calling me a ‘Yahoo boy’ and fraudster. They swore to deal with me. When I tried to show them proofs on my phone that I was truly a furniture maker, they slapped me again. They said I was disguising,” said Ayodeji.

He said the policemen told him not to look into their faces but his feet. He explained that they drove him through Ipaja, searched his phone, and saw a credit notification he got while on the bike.

“When they saw the alert, they asked me to pay N200,000 so I would be released. They became friendly and started negotiating. I told them the money was from a client for purchase of materials. They drove me to the station after I said this,” he wrote.

Ayodeji said he was taken to the back of the station’s main building. He revealed that he saw many young guys who were apparently arrested the same way he was.

“They took me to a room and asked me to sit. They didn’t ask me to write any statement. They resumed the negotiation and asked the amount I was willing to pay. I insisted that the money with me was for materials. They threatened to lock me in the cell and also told me that they were 14 other guys in the cell,” he said.

“I was scared when they showed the state of the boys in the cell. They were in a very deplorable state. They also said there was a murder case in the community before I was arrested. They said I could be put in the place of the murderer.”

Ayodeji said another policeman came into the room and asked what his offence was. He said his captors lied against him and said he was insulting and dragging riffles with them. Negotiations resumed after the other policeman left.

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“They asked me to pay N100,000. I told them to collect N60,000 as that was what I could afford. They asked me to use the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) to withdraw but I didn’t have my ATM card with me. They provided a Zenith Bank account number and I transferred the money to them,” he said.

Ayodeji said the policemen called the owner of the account he sent the money into for confirmation. They then led him out of the police station, released him, and handed his phone to him.

FIJ made several calls to Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, but he did not answer them. He had also not replied to an SMS sent to him at press time.