How anti-kidnap policemen extort money from student in Oyo

Some police officers assigned to the Oyo State Police Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Squad have been arrested for allegedly extorting N43,800 from Ayodele Olamilekan, an undergraduate at Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ago Iwoye, Ogun State.

According to reports, Olamilekan left his school on Wednesday and was traveling by commercial bus to Ibadan, Oyo State, when the vehicle was halted by police officers.

The victim expressed concern that the cops, who had accused him of being an Internet fraudster, had collected N43,800 from him before he was released.

He stated on Facebook, “I was returning from my school in Ago-Iwoye to my parents’ house in Ibadan when my father instructed me via WhatsApp to give N100,000 out of the N110,000 that had been sent to my account to a buddy, leaving a balance of N10,000 in my account.”

“Our bus was halted by AKS Oyo Command police officers, and when I was conversing with my father about sending the money, a police officer glanced through the window and accused me of deleting my communications.

“He took my phone from me and instructed me to unlock it, which I did. He investigated all of my Gmail accounts and discovered nothing damning, but he was accusing me falsely of being a Yahoo boy. The AKS Oyo Command police officers forced me to declare that I was a Yahoo boy and demanded that I pay N500,000.”

Olamilekan stated that he was detained at a checkpoint on the Ijebu-Ode-Ibadan Road by police officers for refusing to part with his money.

He stated that the cops then agreed to collect N25,000 from him and asked him to solicit monies from his friends.

“Ayomide sent me N5,000; Benjamin sent me N5,000; Olayinka sent me N4,000 and Gbenga sent me N5,000. The other unknown guy that was arrested alongside me was made to also call his friends for money.

“We were taken to two different PoS shops in which I made a withdrawal through transfer to the PoS shops. They made me withdraw a total of N38,700 at the first PoS and a total of N5,100 at the second PoS, which totals N43,800.

“After the successful withdrawals and handing out the money in cash to the police officers of the AKS Oyo Command, I and the unknown guy were freed. Then I begged them for N500 so I could take transportation to my destination in which the police officers gave me,” he added.

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The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Asewale Onifeso, had not responded to enquiries about the incident.

However, a Facebook user, Ayo Ojeniyi, who posted Olamilekan’s story on his page, said the cops had been identified and detained.