Favour Olayinka, a stage dancer, has narrated how police officers attached to Ogombo Police Station in Ajah, Lagos, arrested and extorted over N200,000 from him.
On Friday, at about 10:30 pm, Olayinka was on a Bolt ride in Ogombo, heading to an event centre to dance when a Toyota Sienna double-crossed his car and asked him to step out.
Confident that he had nothing incriminating on him, he obeyed the officers and presented himself for a search on their order.
“I assured the Bolt driver that nothing bad would happen because I thought my innocence would work for me. But after they searched me, the men began to act as though they had found something incriminating, “he said.
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“Then they insisted I show them my phone. I did, but I didn’t give them the chance to search. In anger, one of the police officers slapped me on the back. He was angry that I resisted them. By this time, others tried to forcefully collect my phones.
Olayinka could not say a word after one of the officers slapped him. When they asked him to enter their Sienna, he also did so without arguing.
In the car, the officers kept harassing Olayinka, calling him multiple names while hitting him several times. He asked them again why they wanted to forcefully collect his phone, but he was beaten more.
“The officer threatened to take me to the police command in Ikeja. While I tried to defend myself again, they kept beating me and one of them seized my phone forcefully,” he said.
“Around the second tollgate in Lekki, the officer who seized my phone pointed his gun at me and asked me to unlock it. On seeing the Binance app on my phone, he checked my account balance.”
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“He then withdrew $500 dollars from the account and deleted the app from my phone. Out of the N20,000 on me, he collected N16,000 before letting me go. “
When FIJ contacted SP Amubieye John, the Ogombo Divisional Police Officer (DPO), he asked the victim to call him.
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