Police ‘snatches ₦100,000 from man because he looked too fresh’

A young man who identified himself as Oluwaseun has lamented the extortion of ₦100,000 from him by policemen from Oluyole Divisional Headquarters, Ibadan, Oyo state.

Oluwaseun said that the incident occurred last week in front of the station at Ring Road area while he and his brother were coming from a friend’s place.

Accusing the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of being involved, the graduate of Building Technology said they were treated like criminals and forced to pay ₦100,000.

“They checked my car papers and found everything complete,” Oluwaseun told Sahara Reporters.

“A rogue officer who later identified himself as Benjamin asked what I do for a living and I told him I work with an estate firm.

“So he asked me to unlock my phone but I initially refused. So, they threatened to kill me and my younger brother if I refused to cooporate with them. They brought out a ‘shocker’ (taser), so I obliged.

“They then checked my phone and found nothing incriminating, but insisted I was a fraudster and was too fresh to be a builder.

“I was asked to pay the sum of ₦1,000,000 but I told them I didn’t have up to that amount. Later on, they asked me to pay ₦500,000 even without telling me what I did wrong.

“I begged them but they insisted on collecting ₦100,000. Meanwhile, my brother just collected over ₦100,000 he wanted to go and pay in the bank as his school fees; I think that was what that officer Ben saw that made him to suspect us. They told us to go and bring the cash and they removed ₦100,000 from it.

“After taking the ₦100,000 by force, they released us and asked us to go. As I was going out, that officer called Ben came to meet me and gave me his phone number, here is the number. He told me to call him anytime I need police assistance.

“He collected my number as well and threatened to kill me in case I inform anybody about what happened.”