Tobiloba Adelabu, a Nigerian fish farmer, has been held in detention in Benin Republic for over five months on charges of cybercrime, a claim vehemently denied by his family.

Oluwayemisi Ademola, his sister, told FIJ that the police arrested and detained her brother because he was unable to bribe them with 5,000 CFA, and so they levelled false allegations against him.

She said the ordeal began on June 13 when the fish farmer was on a journey from Lagos to Cotonou to assist his wife who had just given birth in relocating her belongings from her landlord’s house. He was stopped at the Seme-Krake checkpoint.

According to Oluwayemisi, when her brother got to the Seme-Krake checkpoint at about 9 pm, the police on duty checked the booth of his car and asked him to alight, which he obliged, before one of them asked him for 5,000 CFA.

She said he immediately told them he had no cash because he hadn’t changed the naira he had yet. According to Yemisi, her brother wanted to head to where he would change his money but the officer took him to their station, Commissariat de Sème Kraké, saying he could not allow him to proceed with the journey because it was late.

READ ALSO: Pendjari! Tracking $1.7m Stray Elephant, Nigerian Journalist Becomes Prisoner in Benin Republic

“He was in their custody till the following morning. The officer who arrested him came in the following morning and was about to let him go when another officer came in. The new officer, who learned of my brother’s nationality, got livid because he was still dressed while the others in their custody had been stripped of their shirts,” Yemisi told FIJ.

“The officer immediately pounced on my brother and started hitting him. He asked my brother who he thought he was for not removing his own shirt. He then tore my brother’s shirt to shreds on the spot. Other officers told him my brother was innocent but he said he was not sorry for hitting him because the Nigerian police are also wicked.”

Yemisi said that a senior police officer who came in that morning reprimanded the erring police officer but asked for the fish farmer’s phone and bag before ordering that he be locked up in the cell.

Seeing that the fish farmer owns an iPhone, the senior officer asked him how he was able to afford it, but after he explained himself, the officer ordered others to lock him up. Yemisi said he remained in the cell for three days without access to his family in Lagos.

Three days after, the senior officer told the high-handed officer to take the fish farmer to another police station with a letter written in French taped to his phone, Yemisi said.

READ ALSO: 2 Weeks After, Innocent Man Arrested by Benin Police Over 800,000 CFA Bribe Still Unreachable

According to her, this new decision caused the officer to transfer her brother to a total of eight police stations before he finally got to the Benin agency responsible for fighting against cybercrime. This was where he was allowed to speak to his family.

“The OCRC claimed my brother was guilty and that they had evidence printed out from his phone. When we got there, we weren’t allowed to speak with him, so we didn’t know the full story. We just knew he was stopped on the road and ended at the OCRC office for charges of cybercrime,” Yemisi recalled.

“They told us to get a lawyer because they were taking him to court the following Wednesday, which was June 21. An officer introduced us to a lawyer, which we later realised was fake. The officer charged us for linking us up with the lawyer. Then the lawyer demanded a staggering 1 million CFA.

“We had little, but out of fear shelled out N500,000. The lawyer did nothing than sleep in court. He was expecting my brother to admit to the charges in court, but my brother refused and was trying to defend himself. Eventually, the case was adjourned until July, and my brother was taken to Akpro-Miserette prison in Porto-Novo, where he has been since.”

READ ALSO: Benin Republic Police Arrest Innocent Man Over 800,000 CFA Bribe Investigations

She said her family found out the lawyer works with the police to extort desperate people. The lawyer, she said, would not contact them after the first sitting nor take their calls until the next sitting when he demanded another N500,000.

Yemisi said her family got introduced to another lawyer who got one of the guys her brother met in the prison there out, and he charged them 3,000,000 CFA, although they bargained until he accepted N1.5 million.

Despite paying a part payment of N1.2 million, the lawyer has only been asking for an adjournment of the case for several reasons, the most recent one being because the family had not paid in full.

“The next sitting is December, but we don’t have the money and we don’t even have the assurance that he’ll be freed if we end up paying that money. His wife and baby are miserable without him, and the whole family isn’t stable. His fish farm is in ruins. My brother doesn’t deserve this,” Yemisi said.

FIJ contacted the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via a phone number on its website but it did not connect. We sent a text but they had not responded at press time.

The police in Benin Republic had arrested Damilola Ayeni, FIJ’s editor who was in the country for the second leg of an environmental story, over false jihadist claim in August and held him in their custody for eight days. Thanks to media pressure and the efforts of the Nigerian embassy in the country, the editor regained freedom; however, there are indications that Nasiru, a Beninoise who was instrumental in the editor’s release, has been held in custody since then.