Cops nabbed for extorting LASU student of N153,000 at gunpoint in Ogun

The Ogun State Police Command has arrested three police officers for allegedly extorting a student of the Lagos State University, Hezekiah Oluwaponmile, of the sum of N153,000 at gunpoint.

The officers, attached to the Owode-Egba Police Station, Siun, had reportedly accosted the victim on Saturday along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway on his way to the Ogun State capital from Ibadan, and demanded N1m from him.

Confirming the arrest of the policemen in a statement on Sunday, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the case is already under investigation.

“We heard about the issue and those policemen have been arrested.

“We have identified them and they have been arrested. They are currently undergoing trial now,” Oyeyemi said.

Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the officers, the victim said the policemen who were on stop-and-search duty, stopped his vehicle and ordered him to alight and asked him what he did for a living.

“I told them that I was a student of LASU. They told me to unlock my phone, but I refused; they threatened to kill me if I did not cooperate with them. They brought out a shocker, so I obliged.

“They asked me how many bank accounts I had and how much was in each of them. I told them I had two accounts with GTB and Union Bank.

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“So, I opened my phone due to the threat from them and upon going through it, I was asked to pay the sum of N1m, but I told them I did not have up to that amount.

“Later on, they asked me to open my bank app, where they saw a balance of N288,000 and told me that they would collect N250,000 out of it without telling me what I did wrong.

“I begged them that I needed the money for some things, but they insisted on collecting N150,000.

“Then they asked me to give them my Automated Teller Machine card; I denied having one, so they took me to a Paga (Point of Sale) shop, which they have a connection with.

“The Paga man collected a fee of N3,000 after negotiating from N5,000. On a final note, I did a transfer of N153,000 to the officers”, he narrated.

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