Benjamin Ugochukwu, an Ogun State resident, has narrated how policemen extorted ₦40,000 from him on Tuesday.
Ugochukwu, via Twitter on Saturday, lamented how some policemen attached to the Obalende Police Station in the Ijebu area of the state arrested him and forced him to withdraw the money.
He said they took him to a First Bank branch in the area, made him withdraw ₦20,000 twice from its ATM, and seized his phone to prevent him from recording the incident.
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His tweet, directed at Muyiwa Adejibi, Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), read, “Your men did this to me at Obalende police station, Ijebu. They took me to First Bank ATM to withdraw my money without finding anything on me. They seized my phone so I couldn’t make a video.”
Ugochukwu, in a separate tweet, said he was on his way back from a naming ceremony when he encountered the police who accused him of being a fraudster.
FIJ called Abimbola Oyeyemi, Public Relations Officer of Ogun State Police Command, on Saturday morning, but he was unavailable to talk at the time. We sent him the tweet, and he reacted by asking the source to call him.
Ojukwu is a reporter with FIJ in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
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