Aina Samuel, a Lagos-based teacher, has narrated how some policemen connived with hoodlums popularly known as ‘agbero’, to extort him on Friday.

Samuel told FIJ that he was on a motorcycle around Ketu bus stop in Lagos State when some hoodlums and police officers stopped him and started calling him a fraudster.

“I’d only been seeing videos of police harassment online but got to experience it,” Samuel said on Friday.

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“Some agberos stopped my bikeman and the policemen joined them. They beat me like a thief in public and people were just passing by.

“I told them I was just going to teach a class. These guys dragged me and one other guy to their bus. They collected our phones and the agberos were punching me.”

Samuel said they were taken to Ketu police station where they were threatened to write only what was dictated to them as statements.

“They took us to a deserted building in the police station with curtains shielding all the windows. They then brought out a statement and asked us to write anything they told us to write,” he said.

“I was so helpless and couldn’t do anything. They later collected some money from us and asked us to leave.”

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Samuel said they took N10,000 from him. When he and his co-detainee complained about the money they were forced to pay, one of the officers said it was better to lose money than lose lives, according to Samuel.

“I can’t even think. They took everything in my wallet. Today has to be the worst day of my life. Maybe I shouldn’t have left the house at all,” he said.

Samuel said he could identify one of the police officers who assaulted him as Adebusiwa Adegbuyi.

Speaking with FIJ, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, confirmed the incident and said the identified police officer had been apprehended.

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He also said disciplinary action would be melted to the officer.

“As I’m speaking with you, the alleged officer has been apprehended and we will take disciplinary steps on it,” he said. “The victim will also get his money returned.”