Police Demand N20,000 Bribe to Arrest Robber who Attacked Lagos Church During Vigil

Ololade Adeyanju/

Convener of the EndSARS Campaign and police reforms advocate, Segun Awosayan, has shared the story of how some officers at the Ogba Police Station in Lagos demanded a bribe of N20,000 from some residents before detaining an armed robbery suspect they had arrested and brought to the station.

According to Awosayan, in a series of tweets on his handle, @segalink, a three-man gang had attaked a church in the area during a vigil in the early hours of yesterday. While two of the robbers escaped with valuables, the parishioners rallied to arrest the third and took him to the station.

Angered by the demand to pay a bribe, the parishioners left the suspect at the station and returned to the church, only for three policemen from the station to visit the church yesterday evening and threatened to bring back the suspect if the parishioners insisted on not paying the bribe. The policemen also threatened to arrest some of the parishioners.

This development prompted the church to contact Awosayan, who then brought the matter to the attention of police authorities in the state.

He said the concerned policemen had been arrested while the suspect will be charged to court this morning.

See Awosayan’s tweets below:

I almost wept this afternoon when a citizen narrated how a church was robbed during a vigil by three robbers. Two escaped with valuables and one was caught. For the love of Christ the parishioners didn’t take laws into their own hands but took the matter to the police.

Upon getting to the station the Police officers demanded that they will need a down payment of N20k to attend to the case and in frustration the parishioners left the place. The next day (this evening) 3 officers visited the church threatening to return the thief and even arrest the parishioners if their demand for N20k is not met. Yes, this reads like some badly written Nollywood movie but it real. We have intervened and the Thief will be arraigned in court tomorrow and the officers involved disciplined. Thanks to DSP @ElkanaBala

This is so bizarre. People were robbed and they came to you with the culprit and all you could do is try to steal from them what the thieves missed? I don’t even want to begin to address the threat to return the thief.

You’ll think this happened in some forest where Nollywood actors film “Amiyu and the Pot of Life” but No! It happened in the heart of Ikeja in Ogba. Impunity lives next door to you. Be your brothers keeper and report these anomalies. Thankful this has been nipped!

I’m sure the thief in this case will be very confused. The action of the police officers venerates him. He must be feeling like one of them now based on the congeniality spirit. For us, in as much as lice remain on the scalp, our finger nails will remain bloody.

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