By Timothy Ojo
Some policemen at the Agbowa Police Station in Ikorodu, near Lagos, have been arrested for criminally extorting money from people who allegedly violated the social restrictions order imposed on Lagos State by both the Federal and State governments as part of the efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
A video had gone viral on social media on Thursday in which a woman alleged that some officers extorted N10,000 from her after she was “arrested” while searching for an ATM to get money and buy food for her family.
According to her, she left her house around 11 a.m., to go and draw money and restock her foodstuff which had gone down; as well as have some money in reserve.
“I left my house this morning, around quarter to 11, to get to a place to withdraw after money at hand had been exhausted and food too,” the plump lady who didn’t reveal her name said. “I went round looking for POS. After checking at ATMs (around her area), there wasn’t money anywhere.
“So, my friend said, let’s go to Oando Filling Station to get money from them, because you can buy fuel and withdraw money using your card too. I said okay.”
But the woman said as they were approaching the filling station, they were flagged down at a road block mounted by the police not too far from the filling station. The officers inquired from them why they were on the road despite the restriction order. They reportedly told the officers their dilemma and their desire to withdraw money.
“They asked us where we were going,” the lady continued her narration. “I replied and said, I was looking for POS. They directed us to a kiosk across the road near their patrol van. The man with the POS told us he can only give us N10, 000. We gladly took it and tried to return to our car.”
That was where their travail began. Rather than allow them to buy their fuel and return home, the lady said the leader of the patrol team ordered an officer to enter their car and take them to the station.
According to the woman, they met other people (civilians) when they got to the station but nobody said anything to them until about 6p.m. when the Divisional Police Officer sauntered in. “The man didn’t talk to us,” the woman continued in the video clip.
What the woman got when they were eventually spoken to shocked her and her friend to the marrow. “I was asked to pay N10, 000 or else I won’t go anywhere,” she said. “The officer wasn’t even ready to listen to anybody.”
So, they had no choice but to surrender the N10,000 they withdrew from the POS. Their fellow ‘detainees’ were also forced to buy their freedom with N10,000 each.
Indeed, the woman was so bitter, while relieving the traumatic experience, that she rained curses on the police officers that treated them so badly, including their families.
The Crest forwarded the video clip to the Force Public Relations Officer (FPPRO), Mr. Frank Mba, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, at 2.06 p.m. on Thursday, urging him to view it.
Mba promptly responded, saying: “We have arrested the officers involved in this and (we are) dealing with the matter accordingly.”