Samuel Salami, a Lagos-based loctician, has narrated to FIJ how policemen attached to the Ketu Division in Lagos dragged him off the road on Friday, detained him and extorted N25,000 from him.

Salami was walking through Tipper Garage to board a vehicle for the Obalende area, where he was supposed to meet his former boss, when a seven-seater minibus, popularly referred to as a korope, abruptly stopped beside him.

Policemen in mufti got out and pushed him into the vehicle.

The loctician told FIJ he asked the policemen to explain why they were arresting him. Instead of responding, “They slapped me for what they claimed was ‘arguing'”.

He said they accused him of cultism and then put him together with a man whom they arrested for possessing illegal substances.

Salami said, “They just threw me into the bus, handcuffed and phone dead. For 90 minutes, they paraded me with a guy accused of selling weed, and they arrested others too on the road.

“They arrested a drummer with an iPhone and a dad buying food for his children. They slapped him for begging to call his family. At Ketu Division, one of the officers took charge. He forced us to strip, sit on the floor and unlock our phones, targeting the ‘neat’ ones like me. He beat a guy who refused to unlock his phone, mocked his registered tattoo and filmed him. Weed sellers? Untouched. He slapped me, nearly knocking me out. Finding nothing on my charged phone, he called me a cultist over a Twitter lantern wallpaper and beat my knees and fingers.”

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While this was ongoing, no one knew where Salami was. He was with the police, and his ex-boss kept waiting.

“In an isolated corner, a policeman forced me to kneel, demanding I confess to being a cultist,” he added.

“I swore I wasn’t. He hit me for five minutes, forcing me to repeat oaths and show random videos. He beat me until I complied to stop the torture. My knees were condemned, and my fingers were swollen.

“They locked me in a cell for five hours. I begged a sergeant, citing my ulcer and hunger, to let me call my boss and sister. He pitied me, but the officer had my phone. I waited, sat on the ground again, and finally called for bail. They demanded N200,000 from my ex-boss, lying that I was a cultist who confessed.”

Salami’s ex-boss and sister later arrived at the station and had to part with N25,000 to secure his release. The police had a PoS merchant get the money transferred to their account so the police could get cash.

Salami said he never saw any of the policemen’s names, as most of them wore mufti, while the few who wore uniforms did not have name tags on them.

However, he does remember their faces and can identify them.

FIJ called the Police Complaints Response Unit (CRU) on Tuesday, but they said they could investigate if they knew the name of the investigating police officer who detained him. FIJ then called the DPO on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the number was switched off.