Published 24th May, 2022

By Daniel Ojukwu

Policemen attached to the Idimu Police Division, Lagos State, on Saturday, attempted to extort the sum of N100,000 from passengers of an Uber taxi which broke down in the Ikotun area of Lagos.

The officers, identified simply as Oke, Friday Ogbeifun and two others, approached Segun Akinoye, Ebuka Joel, Tolualase Ojo and Samuel Sanusi, partygoers and passengers of the taxi minutes after 9 am.

On sighting the officers, the passengers began to suspect the driver of working with the police to set them up, so they seized his phone.

“We were coming from Landmark Hotel, Ikotun,” Akinoye told FIJ. “The driver told us his Toyota Corolla developed a fault, but earlier he was calling unknown people and using slangs.”

Soon after the police showed up and ordered the release of the driver’s phone, Akinoye said they insisted on arresting all four occupants of the vehicle, prompting an angry mob to gather.

The officers eventually arrested Joel, and would later fabricate a statement in his name and force him to unlock his phone to recover information.

When an FIJ reporter arrived at the station, Joel and Akinoye said the officers seized gold jewellery, an iWatch and iPhone from them, and accused them of confessing to smoking illegal substances.

“That is not my statement; it is not my handwriting. They wrote it and forced me to sign,” Joel said. “This officer (pointing to an officer there) asked me to give him N100,000 before he would let me go.”

The officers confessed to writing the statement, but claimed Joel supplied the information. The presence of the journalist made the police throw out the statement and set them free, unable to make a case against them.

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