Lagos students accuse policemen of extortion during night raid

Residents of the Ketu-Alapere area of Lagos State have accused policemen attached to the Ketu Police Division of carrying out unlawful late-night arrests and extorting money from those detained.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the officers stormed the community on Saturday night, arresting people at random during a sweep that reportedly lasted several hours.

Two Yaba College of Technology students were among those picked up. They said they were returning from church when the officers apprehended them.

One of the students, Solomon Adelumola, told our correspondent on Sunday that despite identifying themselves and showing their school ID cards, the policemen ignored their explanations and forced them into a minibus.

He said, “We had just finished a meeting in our church at Deji Oworu, Alapere. We thought we would finish by 10:30 pm, but the meeting extended till around 11 pm. I decided to spend the night with our member who lives nearby. We were already along the Ketu walkway, close to the Ile-Ile bus stop, when we saw two men walking towards us. Since we had nothing to worry about, we kept going until they moved close to us and suddenly pulled us by our trousers.

“We tried to figure out what was going on before we discovered that they were policemen. Despite telling them we were students and showing them our ID cards, they dragged us like criminals into the vehicle and took us to the station.”

The second victim, David Owolabi, said the officers forcefully seized his phone, damaging it in the process. He added that about 10 other people arrested in similar fashion were brought into the station.

According to him, detainees were released only after paying not less than N20,000 each. He said even a superior officer who listened to their explanation made the same demand.

He said, “We approached one of the officers and explained our plight to him, but he said there was nothing he could do except for us to pay N20,000 each before they could release us. We saw a few other persons who were arrested pay the amount and were later released to go. The officer specifically said they arrested us because of money and that we should not try any nonsense with them.

“We told them we didn’t have that amount and that we were students who had committed no crime but were only heading home from church. So they agreed to N10,000 each, and one of the officers followed my friend to a Point-of-Sale terminal operator outside the station, but they couldn’t find any. Afterwards, they called one of the operators to send his account number, and that was how we transferred N20,000 to the Opay account the person sent.”

Owolabi added that the policemen refused to disclose their real identities, choosing instead to address one another with nicknames. One officer, he said, was called Agba.

The students said they were held for more than two hours before being released around 2 am.

When contacted on Sunday, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Adebisi, said the Complaint Response Unit has been notified about the development.

She said, “I’ve forwarded the complaint to CRU for investigation, but we’ll need them to come forward.”

The incident adds to growing concerns over police misconduct in Lagos, with residents repeatedly accusing officers of harassment, extortion, and illegal detention during night patrols.

In March, PUNCH Metro reported that the Lagos State Police Command arrested three officers accused of extorting N150,000 from travellers along the Ikeja-Berger Road.