The Lagos State Police Command has commenced disciplinary action against officers of the Tactical Unit attached to the Mile 2 Police Station over the alleged extortion of N100,000 from four young men who were detained after leaving a cinema in FESTAC, Lagos.
The action followed a report of the incident and subsequent attention drawn to the case by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ).
The Area Commander, Godwin Oti Chike, who intervened in the matter, confirmed that the officers involved had been identified and that the N100,000 allegedly collected from the victims had been refunded.
ACP Oti said he had personally obtained statements from the four young men as part of the investigation.
“I have taken the statements from the boys involved and I have gotten the officers to refund the money to them and the issue has been resolved amicably. The officers are attached to the Mile 2 police station and I intervened as the commanding officer,” he said.
The four men were reportedly arrested by officers of the Tactical Unit while returning to their hotel after visiting Festival Cinema in FESTAC.
One of the victims, Ayomide Akinpelu Salvation, told FIJ that the incident started after he and his three friends heard a commotion and the sound of people scrambling with cutlasses.
According to Akinpelu, the four men began running in an attempt to leave the area but encountered Tactical Unit officers, who allegedly accused them of being armed robbers.
“They started by saying we were armed robbers, asking where we threw our guns and dagger. They were asking us where we kept the guns and dagger and telling us that we had run after seeing them and thrown our pistols away,” he said.
The men reportedly explained that they had just left the cinema and were trying to find their way back to their hotel. They also showed the officers their cinema tickets, but were allegedly accused of being cultists.
The officers subsequently took the four men to the Mile 2 Police Station at about 11pm, where they were questioned about why they had fled the area.
Akinpelu said the officers told them that the location was allegedly a known meeting point for cultists and informed them that their parents would be contacted to come to the station the following morning.
At about 1:30am, the four men were reportedly called out individually to write statements.
After Akinpelu completed his statement, an officer allegedly asked how much the group could raise if they were required to bail themselves.
“He asked me if they ask us to bail ourselves, can we raise N5 million? I told him we couldn’t. I said I was not even sure I had up to N100,000 in my account alone,” Akinpelu said.
He alleged that the officer subsequently instructed him to display his bank account balance at about 2am. His three friends were also reportedly asked to show their account balances.
The men were then allegedly asked how much they could raise among themselves. They said they could contribute N100,000, but were reportedly told initially that the amount was unacceptable to a superior officer.
At about 5am, a superior officer allegedly spoke with the four men and questioned them again about the circumstances surrounding their arrest.
Akinpelu said they repeated that they had run because of the commotion and again presented evidence showing that they had been at the cinema shortly before their arrest.
“He brought us outside and started talking to us about what we had done. He was saying that the place where we ran from was a cultists’ hangout zone and asking us why we were there.
“We explained everything to him again. We told him where we had been, showed him the evidence that we had gone to the cinema and explained how we got there and where we were going,” he said.
According to Akinpelu, the four men eventually contributed N100,000 before they were released that morning.
A transfer receipt obtained in connection with the incident reportedly showed that the money was paid into an OPay account bearing the name Wahab Ayinde Abdulrasaq.
The victim maintained that nothing incriminating was found on any of the four men and that they had evidence confirming their presence at the cinema.
“We had our cinema tickets. I had the payment receipt and a picture I took inside the cinema. My friends also sent money to me because I was the one making some of the payments. We had all these things, but they were not interested in hearing us at first,” he said.
Following the report, the Area Commander commenced an investigation, obtained statements from the victims and facilitated the refund of the N100,000.
The Lagos State Police Command has now indicated that disciplinary proceedings will be taken against the officers found to have been involved in the alleged extortion.
The development comes amid renewed scrutiny of police conduct and calls for greater accountability among officers involved in stop-and-search operations, arrests and detention of members of the public.