A university student, Olawale Ayomide, has accused policemen attached to the Igbeba Police Division in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, of extorting N99,000 from him , and mistakenly left behind an officer’s cap in his vehicle after the encounter.
Olawale said that the incident occurred on Tuesday while he was driving his mother’s vehicle from Sagamu to Ijebu-Ode.
He alleged that the officers stopped him, accused him of driving a car without a number plate, and ignored his explanation that his mother was still processing the registration papers.
He said, “I was heading to Ijebu-Ode from Sagamu when I encountered some policemen along the road. They stopped us and asked my friend and me to step out of the vehicle. The car belongs to my mum, and she’s currently processing its documents.
Without telling us our offence, they entered the car and ordered us to follow them to their station. On our way, we asked what our offence was, and they claimed we were driving a vehicle without a number plate. We explained the situation to them and even offered to call my mum to confirm ownership of the car, but they refused and insisted on taking us to the station.”
Olawale alleged that the policemen later demanded ₦1 million before they would release them and threatened to seize the vehicle if he failed to comply.
“Eventually, they asked us to park close to the station and said they would settle for ₦100,000 after going back and forth. And since they wouldn’t let us go, I called my phone dealer and told him I wanted to sell my second phone so he could send me the money. When I received the alert, the officers took me to a PoS terminal, where I finally transferred the ₦99,000 to them,” he said.
His friend, Dare Ifeanyi, who was with him during the ordeal, alleged that the officers later forced them to write a false statement at a nearby police station.
“They asked us to deny that they collected money from us and to claim that we were Internet fraudsters. They also told us to say the vehicle didn’t belong to our mum but that we bought it for ₦5m from the proceeds of fraud. We refused at first, but they threatened to detain us, so we did as they said,” Ifeanyi recounted.
The students were released afterward but later found a police cap left behind in the car.
“We discovered a police cap on the back seat at home. We explained what happened to Ayomide’s mum,” Ifeanyi added.
Olawale’s mother, Mrs. Omolabake, confirmed ownership of the car and said she personally found the cap inside the vehicle.
She said, “I saw the cap in the vehicle and asked my son where he saw it. Initially, he did not want to tell me what happened until after I persuaded him. This is not good at all. My name is on the document for the car. We are only processing the plate number. I felt bad when I was told they were recorded and asked to lie against themselves.
“I knew what they did was not good, and that was how it ended this way. My husband is not around now, and I am waiting for him to return before going to the station. They have to refund the money and delete the video they recorded.”
An activist and Coordinator of the Take It Back Movement in Lagos, Adekunle Taofeek, also shared the incident on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.
He wrote, attaching a photo of the cap: “Someone sent this to me just now. Some policemen extorted my brother along the Ijebu Ode road, Egbeda, yesterday. They collected 100k illegally from him. Along the line, they forgot their cap inside his car. He was forced to sell his phone at gunpoint to settle them. Is that not kidnap for ransom?”
Efforts to reach the Ogun State Police Command spokesperson, Omolola Odutola. A text message sent to her had not been replied to as of press time.
(PUNCH)