Commissioner of Police in Ogun State Command, Edward Awolowo Ajogun has ordered the immediate arrest of three mobile policemen alleged of extorting N153,000 from one Sheriff Adedigba, a student of Lagos State University (LASU) on Saturday, April 24, 2021.
The three policemen were identified as Inspector Sunday John, Sergeant Jimoh Asimiyu and Sergeant Solomon Adedapo.
They were alleged to have forcefully extorted the said money from the complainant while he was travelling from Abeokuta to Lagos State.
In a statement issued on Sunday, April 25, 2021, the state police spokesman, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the police commissioner directed the Divisional Police Officer of Owode Egba division, under whose jurisdiction the incident occurred, to fish out the erring officers with immediate effect, after learning about the incident on social media.
The PPRO said that the three officers were quickly identified and apprehended.
“The money was recovered from them and returned to the victim, while the officers are currently undergoing departmental orderly room trial, at which an appropriate punishment will be awarded to them,” Oyeyemi stated further.
Ajogun appealed to members of the public not to hesitate in reporting any officer of the command found doing whatever is not consistent with the law of land.
He also warned officers and men of the command to desist from any act capable of tarnishing the image of the force, as such would not be tolerated.
The LASU student exposed the erring mobile policemen when he wrote his experience on social media.
Passing through Owode Egba route to Lagos State, he said that the officers led him out of the car and asked what he was doing for a living.
According to the student, “I told them I am a LASU student, and they told me to unlock my phone but I refused.
“They threatened to kill me if I didn’t cooperate with them. They brought out a shocker, so I obliged.
“The officers asked me how many bank accounts I had and how much I had in each of them. I told them I had two – GT Bank and Union Bank.
“I opened my phone due to their threat, and upon going through it, I was asked to pay the sum of N1 million, but I told them I didn’t have up to that amount.
“They later asked me to open my bank app, where they saw a balance of N288,000 and told me they would collect N250,000 out of it, even without telling me what I did wrong.
“I begged them that I needed the money for some things; they insisted on collecting N150,000.
“Then they asked me to give them my ATM card; I denied having one, so they took me to a Point of Sale (POS) shop they have connection with. The man collected a fee of N3,000 after negotiating from N5,000. On a final note, I did a transfer of N153,000.”