Anti-Kidnapping Squad detained for extorting N43,800 from student

Some policemen attached to the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of the Oyo State Police Command have been arrested for allegedly extorting N43,800 from an undergraduate of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Ayodele Olamilekan.

Our correspondent gathered that Olamilekan left his school on Wednesday, and was being conveyed to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, in a commercial bus, when the cops stopped the vehicle.

The victim lamented that the policemen, who accused him of being an Internet fraudster, collected N43,800 from him before he regained his freedom.

In a post on Facebook, he wrote, “I was coming back from my school in Ago-Iwoye down to Ibadan to my parents’ house when my dad told me on WhatsApp to send N100,000 out of the N110,000 that was sent to my account, to a friend of his, in which a balance of N10,000 is remaining in my account.

“Our bus was stopped by the police of AKS Oyo Command and while I was chatting with my dad that I have sent the money, a policeman looked through the window and accused me of deleting my chats.

“He seized my phone and told me to unlock it, which I did. He checked all my Gmail accounts and found nothing incriminating, but he was falsely accusing me that I was a Yahoo boy. The police officers of the AKS Oyo Command made me proclaim that I was a Yahoo boy and said I should pay 500,000 naira.”

Olamilekan said the policemen detained him at the checkpoint on Ijebu-Ode-Ibadan Road for refusing to provide the money.

He said the cops later agreed to collect N25,000 from him and urged him to call his friends to raise the funds.

“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 2 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.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Asewale Onifeso, had yet to respond to enquiries from our correspondent on the incident.

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