Three police officers nabbed for extorting LASU student at gunpoint

Three police officers have been arrested for allegedly extorting a student of the Lagos State University, Hezekiah Oluwaponmile, of the sum of N153, 000 at gunpoint.

Confirming the arrest of the policemen in a statement, the Ogun state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the arrested officers were from the Owode-Egba Police Station, Siun.

According to him, they 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.

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.

“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.