Published 26th Dec, 2021

Policemen attached to a checkpoint at Anthony Bus-Stop, Lagos, extorted N415,000 from Harrison Itedjere.

Itedjere, who is seeking admission to Coventry University, England, was on his way from a service apartment in the Lekki area of Lagos to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on December 6, when he was stopped by policemen.

He told FIJ that he initially suspected the armed officers were not policemen until they showed him a bulletproof vest with the Nigerian police emblem on it.

“They asked me where I was coming from. I told them I was coming from a service apartment and heading to the airport because I wanted to go back to Asaba,” he told FIJ.

After probing him, they asked that he surrender his phone for a search, which he reluctantly agreed to after the officers threatened him with a gun. Then they checked his account.

He said, ‘They demanded I send them N1 million, but I told them it was a proof of funds my dad put in my account before I came to pay my Coventry tuition at the embassy. My account does transfer that much at once, and I even had to go to the bank with the embassy attendant to make the school fee payment.

“After much argument, they called a POS operator and asked me to withdraw to my limit. They ended up collecting N415,000.”

FIJ made attempts to speak with Adekunle Ajisebutu, Lagos State police spokesman, on the phone, but he did not respond to repeated calls. At press time, he had not responded to a text message sent to him.

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