Adedotun Ogunnowo, a Lagos resident, has detailed to FIJ how policemen in the Epe area of Lagos State extorted N400,000 from him and his brother after threatening to torture them.

Ogunnowo said he and his brother were driving through the Ijebu-Ode/Epe road on Wednesday morning when the policemen stopped them for a search operation.

He said that when the law enforcement agents did not find anything incriminating, they took them to their station and attempted to force them to unlock their phones or risk getting dragged to a torture room.

Recounting his experience to FIJ, Ogunnowo said, “The police stopped us and we complied and allowed them to do their work. They confirmed that there was no exhibit in the car, and we were asked to identify ourselves, which we did by showing them our identity cards.

“The next thing I heard from one of the officers was that they had to search our phones. My elder brother told him we couldn’t open the phones since they were our personal effects. The next thing we heard was, ‘Now enter this vehicle before we injure you!’

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“On getting to the station, they wanted us to open the phones. We still refused. One officer, Unity Omondia, started slapping and hitting me with a baton to force me to open the phone.

“He then threatened to take me to a torture room and said, ‘Na sorry dem go tell you and you go still open am‘. After they successfully forced us to open our phones, they went straight to our bank apps to log in and check the balances.

“They saw N140,000 in my cousin’s account, which he wanted to use to pay his school fees; N16,000 in my account and N2,000 in my elder brother’s account. Afterwards, they requested the sum of N2 million. We told them we couldn’t afford that amount, so they told us to call people to bail us out. They didn’t release us until my uncle made a transfer of N400,000 to me. I withdrew this to give them.”

Ogunnowo identified Henry Williams, Unity Omondia, Richard Esene and Ojoko L. as some of the policemen involved.

On Thursday, Muyiwa Adejobi, the force public relations officer (FPRO), called for an investigation into the allegations.

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.