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The alleged police officers [Credit: X | #BenHundeyin]
The Lagos State Police Command said it has begun the trial of four police officers accused of extorting N1m from three members of the National Youth Service Corps in the Surulere area of the state.
On Thursday evening, an X user, Oluyemi Fasipe, shared that the officers, from Area C Police Command in Surulere, allegedly extorted the sum of N1 million from three members of the National Youth Corps members.
It was gathered that the corps members were stopped along the Surulere expressway before a group of officers surrounded their vehicle and started conducting a search. An argument ensued between the corps members and the officers before the vehicle was driven to Area C police station where the extortion was said to have taken place.
“Officers today, in Surulere extorted one million naira from three corps members. They were threatened with firearms, kidnapped, and taken to the Kafaru Oluwole Tinubu House, Area C Police Command of the @LagosPoliceNG where they were robbed. Their offence was the absence of a physical copy of a driver’s license,” he posted.
Commenting on a series of videos, Fasipe said, “According to the victims, the officer in mufti is the one who collected the money (their boss).”
In one of the videos recorded by the corps member through a spy camera, a policeman was heard asking the corps member who drove the vehicle to provide his driver’s license.
“I’m renewing it,” the corps member said, leading to an argument as the policemen wanted to see a paper driver’s license.
The argument escalated as the police were said to have ordered the removal of the vehicle’s plate number while one officer was heard shouting, “If you do anyhow, I will molest you.”
In a voice note obtained by our correspondent, the corps member who claimed he was extorted said the police extorted N200,000 from two of them.
He said, “They said I should log into my NYSC portal. While trying to log in, one snatched my phone. They started going through messages and pictures. They asked me where I got the money for a car. I told them it’s my mum’s car. Then, they said I should give them N10 million.
“I said I didn’t have, but I could afford N50,000. They refused. I begged him as he was still searching my phone. When he went through my account and saw N116,000, I told him I could give them N100,000 but he refused and said I should call people to send me money. He heard me talking to my girlfriend on the phone to send me N200,000. Fortunately, my family already knew I was with the police because I called my mummy immediately the incident occurred, and she had called my girlfriend. So, when I asked my girlfriend for N200,000, she said she didn’t have it.
“They met about N200,000 on my other guy’s phone too and told him to send N100,000 to me. They said I should give him my ATM card to go and withdraw N200,000.”
The corps member also said the police forced one of them to transfer his Bitcoin worth $842.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, had earlier said the officers involved in the incident had been identified and were under interrogation.
However, on Friday evening, Hundeyin said the men had been summoned and their trial had commenced.
