3 Policemen Dismissed For Unlawful Arrest And Extortion

The Nigerian Police force has dismissed 3 policemen attached to the Area N Command, Ijede, Ikorodu, Lagos State, for unlawful arrest and extortion.

The dismissed copS Inspector Okelue Nkemeonye with Administrative Police Number, 136005; Sergeant Braimoh Sunday, with Force Number, 355897, and Yusuf Olukoga with F.No., 359928, had, on June 21, extorted a graduate who had gone to deposit some money at a bank in Ikorodu.

Via a petition written to the Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit, the graduate revealed that the policemen accused him of being a Yahoo boy (Internet fraudster), and asked him to pay N1m. 

He said in his statement: ‘I went to the bank this morning (June 21) to deposit money to a company’s account, but there was no network; so I deposited the money into my personal account to do the transfer to the account later. When I came out of the bank, I saw a van with some SARS policemen inside.
‘I was told to enter the vehicle at gunpoint. They collected my mobile phone and asked me what I did for a living. I told them that I had just finished my youth service and I was living with my brother. I pointed my brother’s shop to them to stop by and see him because he was the one that sent me to the bank.

‘They refused to wait and they did not allow me to pick my calls or make any call. I received an alert on my phone confirming the money I went to deposit.
‘They searched my phone and on seeing the alert, they said I was a Yahoo boy, telling me that I would pay them N1m. One of them slapped me.’

He added saying N50,000 was eventually collected from him after being beaten and that they also extorted other victims of N200,000.

Lagos Police PRO, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole has also said that two other sergeants and a constable attached to the Isheri Osun Police Station, Lagos, have been detained after two suspected robbers escaped from the cell.