Richard Ojite, a student at Wesley University in Ondo, has accused police officers attached to Meiran Police Station, Lagos State, of extorting up to N15,000 from him.

On Monday, Ojite was on a motorcycle around Ajasa Command, heading to Abule-Egba, when police officers attached to Meiran Police Station ordered him to stop.

After arresting him, they took Ojite to the back of their station where they pointed guns at him.

“They dismissed my rider and immediately took me and five other young men to the back of their police station where they asked me to open my phone. The men went through my messages and WhatsApp chats and found nothing,” he said.

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“Then they began to listen to WhatsApp voice messages. They stumbled on a chat where an acquaintance asked for a Facebook account. The corresponding message indicated that I rebuked the inquirer. But the officers ignored that.”

The policemen called Ojite an internet fraudster. They told him to bail himself out with N300,000 from the proceeds of his fraud.

“I told them I was a student and could not possibly have N300,000. Later, they began haggling the price of my bail. From N200,000, they eventually negotiated N50,000. Still, I told them I was a student and did not have more than N15,000 in my account,” Ojite told FIJ.

“They also asked me to call any of my rich friends. They said the N15,000 was a chicken feed.”

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The officers then asked him to show them his account statement. Seeing that Ojite truly had only N15,000 in his account, the officers said they would collect all the money.

“I told them I could only give them N5,000 because N10,000 belonged to someone else. But they were infuriated. They said even N50,000 would be insufficient if they decided to share it among themselves,” he said.

To avoid staying out late, Ojite agreed to give up all the money in his account to the officers. Seeing he agreed, the men took him to a POS point where he withdrew all the money and gave it to them.

“When I gave them the money, they used my phone to call my father, telling him they arrested me alongside a gang of criminals but were releasing me on learning I was innocent,” he explained.

When FIJ contacted SP Shonubi Toyosi, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Meiran Police Station, she asked that Ojite visit her office.