The Lagos State Police Command has commenced disciplinary action against officers of the Tactical Unit attached to the Mile 2 Police Station after they allegedly detained four young men and extorted N100,000 from them.
The action followed a report on the incident and the subsequent attention drawn to the matter by Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), after which the Area Commander, Godwin Oti Chike, began investigating the case.
ACP Oti confirmed that he had taken statements from the four young men and identified the officers involved as members of the Tactical Unit attached to the Mile 2 Police Station. He also said the officers had refunded the N100,000 to the victims.
“I have taken the statements from the boys involved, and I have gotten the officers to refund the money to them,m 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 young men were reportedly detained at the Mile 2 Police Station after Tactical Unit officers apprehended them while they were returning to their hotel after visiting Festival Cinema in FESTAC, Lagos.
One of the victims, Ayomide Akinpelu Salvation, who spoke to FIJ, said the incident began when he and his three friends started running after hearing a commotion and the sound of people scrambling with cutlasses.
According to him, the men encountered the Tactical Squad officers while trying to find their way out of the area and were accused 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,” Akinpelu said.
The men reportedly explained that they had just left the cinema and were trying to return to their hotel. They also showed the officers their cinema tickets but were allegedly accused of being cultists.
The policemen subsequently took them to the Mile 2 Police Station at about 11 pm, where they were questioned about why they had fled the area.
Akinpelu said the officers told them that the location was a known meeting point for cultists and that their parents would be contacted to come to the station the following morning.
At about 1:30 amm, the men were called individually to write their statements. After Akinpelu wrote his, an officer allegedly asked how much the four friends 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 said the officer subsequently asked him to show his bank account balance at about 2 am, after which his friends were also asked to display theirs.
The four men were then allegedly asked to determine how much they could raise among themselves. They said they could contribute N100,000, but were initially told that the amount had been rejected by a superior officer.
At about 5 a.m.m, the superior officer reportedly spoke with the men and questioned them again about the circumstances that led to their arrest.
Akinpelu said they repeated that they had only run because of the commotion and showed evidence that they had been at the cinema.
“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 men eventually contributed N100,000 before they were released that morning.
A transfer receipt obtained in connection with the incident showed that the money was paid into an OPay account bearing the name Wahab Ayinde Abdulrasaq.
Akinpelu said nothing incriminating was found on any of the four men and that they had evidence to show that they had been at the cinema shortly before their arrest.
“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 of the incident and the attention drawn to it, the Area Commander commenced an investigation, took statements from the victims and secured a refund of the N100,000.
The police have also indicated that disciplinary action will be taken against the officers involved in the incident.
