Victim Reveals New Robbery Method by Policemen after N300k Extortion

Matilda Omonaiye/

A victim who took to social media to narrate how he was robbed of N300, 000 by armed policemen, has been repaid by the authorities.

The victim, Adebola, who registered his complaint through his twitter handle, Adebola@educatedthurg, narrated how he was flagged down by policemen as he was driving with his brother and mother who was being taken to a hospital in Abeokuta on August 8.

The policemen who stopped Adebola’s car at the interchange roundabout allegedly compelled him to make a transfer of N300, 000 to them at gunpoint.

He noted that the officers wore vests with the inscription ‘Eleweran SCIID’.

“They profiled us as Yahoo boys and forcibly took our phones from us. After about 30 minutes of going through our phones and finding nothing, they asked who owned the car we were driving. We told them it belonged to our sister and that we were taking our mother to the hospital. After about an hour of interrogation, they got into our car and drove us to a place in Sium, where they stopped and demanded for N500, 000. We insisted we wouldn’t pay because we had not committed any crime,” Adebola said.

According to him, the policemen later drove them to a station at Owode-Egba Roundabout, opposite Oando Filling Station, where they allegedly threatened to lock them up and told them that they would have to pay more if detained overnight.

He said: “They went through our phones again, saying it was not possible for us to have nothing on us. This time, they found an alert on my brother’s phone with an available balance of N1.2million. The angry officers asked how my brother got that amount of money in his account. My brother explained that he was a Forex trader. He even showed the officers his trades and charts.

“We realized it was getting serious and out of hand, because the policemen looked desperate and willing to do anything to us. We decided to negotiate with them. They said they would take nothing less than N300, 000 because of the stress we had put them through. We agreed to pay the money just to gain our freedom because my mum was scared to death. They refused a transfer because they said it was traceable. They directed us to a POS close to the police station to make the withdrawal.

“After collecting the money, they asked us to make a one minute video, stating that we were Yahoo Boys and to also admit that no money was taken from us. We did it because my mum was worried. They corked gun like one million times and had over 60 similar videos of different victims on their phones. They were very careful not to mention their names. They go by different code names. I can remember ERU, TIGER and AGBARA.”

The Nigerian Police on its twitter handle @PoliceNG_CRU says it has launched investigation into the complaint of Adebola and his family.

On August 8, Adebola returned to Twitter to announce that his money has been refunded by the authorities, including the POS charges.

He added: “I just pray the Nigeria Police could do better in their way of operating.”

0