Ondo State police extorted the sum of N80,000 from a God Is Good Mobility (GIGM) driver on Saturday, FIJ can report.

This followed a collision between a police vehicle and a GIGM vehicle along Akungba road in the state.

The driver of the police vehicle had hit his brakes abruptly in the middle of the road, causing the GIGM driver, in a bid to avoid the halted police vehicle, to hit his own brakes and make to turn away. He collided with the left taillight of the police vehicle, causing damage to both vehicles, passengers told FIJ.

Passengers said the police vehicle’s driver claimed he saw a dog, and was trying to avoid it, but did not notice the vehicle behind him.

Soon after the accident, policemen from Akungba Police Division arrived at the scene and took all parties to their station, where both drivers were made to write statements.

“The GIGM driver had his license and documents intact, but the driver of the police vehicle had no license,” a passenger told FIJ. “The driver of that police vehicle was just drinking Smirnoff Ice, and he could not provide a license.

“When we asked the police why they were not faulting the driver of their vehicle for driving without a license, they said anyone who drives a police vehicle is authorised to do so with or without a license.

“We later found that his vehicle did not have a side mirror on the left side, and the right side mirror was broken even though it was still in place.”

The passenger said the DPO of the station faulted the driver for not stopping immediately he noticed someone stopped in front of him.

“They called a panel beater to come and evaluate the extent of the damage done to the police vehicle,” this passenger continued. “The panel beater first said he would charge N120,000, but later settled for N80,000.

“The police then told the driver to call his company to pay before we would leave the station. We were held there for three hours, and there were five children on that bus.

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“Some of us pointed out that the police vehicle with number plate PF9148OD, which was involved in the crash, had no side mirrors, but the police cheekily said they might have fallen off after the collision.

“We were still there when the driver of the police vehicle and his passenger, who seemed to be a friend of the police, drove off. The DPO drove off and left us there too as it began to rain.

“At the end of the day, we lost time, the driver’s company paid, and we continued our journey late. We went with a damaged vehicle in the dead of the night, and no compensation.”

FIJ called Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, the public relations officer of the Ondo State Police Command, and she said she would look into it.

Ojukwu is a reporter with FIJ in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.