Published 9th Jul, 2022

By Daniel Ojukwu

The Osun State Police Command has told Oluwadamilola Babatunde, a Lagos State resident and gadget salesman from whom they extorted N960,000, that they can only refund N150,000 to him.

Babatunde told FIJ that he spoke with Yemisi Opalola, Public Relations Officer of the Osun State Police Command, and she invited him to the state but told him the officers who extorted him only gave her N150,000.

He said she pled with him to afford them more time to raise the rest of the money.

“She was asking me if she should send the N150,000 and send the balance ‘small small’. I said the total money was not N150,000,” Babatunde told FIJ. “I think my invitation to Osun was a trap.”

FIJ earlier reported how Babatunde was arrested in Lagos on May 22, 2022, for alleged burglary and phone theft in Osun. He was later transported to Osun where he was cleared of all allegations when the real culprit was caught.

He told FIJ that Sola Afolabi, a police officer attached to Dugbe Police Station in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, extorted N760,000 from him and his friend, while he spent N200,000 on a replacement phone for one of his customers.

He had earlier sold a phone to the customer, but the police accused him of stealing the phone and confiscated it. The ordeal cost him N960,000 in total.

“We incurred a total cost of N960,000. Aside the N650,000 the police collected for the phones we did not steal, we had to buy a new iPhone XS Max for my customer at N200,000 cost. My customer also paid N100,000 bail, and Afolabi still collected N10,000 from us,” Babatunde told FIJ.

Earlier, Opalola told FIJ in a telephone interview that she would ensure the money was refunded, but when FIJ tried to confirm the new development, she did not answer our calls.

As of press time, she had also not responded to a text message sent to her.

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