The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), a civic organization, has requested that Kayode Egbetokun, the acting inspector general of police, look into allegations of extortion in the Ondo state command.
It is claimed in a news release issued on Sunday by Okechukwu Nwanguma, the executive director of RULAAC, that Nigerian police officers extorted Mr. Ikechukwu Onu, a 49-year-old shop owner in Sagamu, Ogun State, after he was wrongfully detained three years earlier.
The document claims that at around 1.50 pm on Sunday, August 27, 2023, Ikechukwu received a call from someone identifying himself as a police officer from Akure Area Command, Ondo State Command, but withholding his identification.
When asked how he purchases supplies, Mr. Ikechukwu responded that he only does so through businesses. The policeman claimed that they had detained some guys who claimed to have sold him goods and to whom he owed N25 million.
According to the statement, one suspect they detained, Kazeem Arigbagbo, confessed to robbing and killing someone, and that they (police officers) killed one of the “robbers.”
“That on Monday, August 28, 2023, the officer requested that he report to Area Command in Akure.
That he was unable to understand what the police had said, so he immediately alerted his lawyer, who then called the officer. After the officer gave the lawyer a recap of the events, the lawyer asked the officer to issue his client a formal invitation. Later, the officer called him back and yelled at him.
“That he remembers that around three years ago, this same Kazeem Arigbagbo was serving sentences at Sagamu prisons, and that while in prison, the said Kazeem called him and requested him to come and settle him. He questioned, “What would you settle for?” Additionally, Kazeem only expressed his threat to “sell his case to SARS.”
“That he knew Kazeem in Sagamu, having once made a purchase from him two years prior to his arrest and subsequent imprisonment, and there was no dispute regarding the transaction between them.
“That he immediately informed his attorney, who went to visit Kazeem in jail and asked him about the issue.
“When the lawyer asked Kazeem if the matter he was asking Ikechukwu to settle had anything to do with the crime that had landed him in jail, he replied that it did not, but he still told Ikechukwu to come see him and pay N300,000 or he would’sell his case to SARS’. He omitted to explain the nature of the settlement. The attorney left.
“That he had a sneaking suspicion that, while in jail, Kazeem might have needed money for his family and turned to extortion.
“Those police officers from SARS Magbom, Abeokuta arrived a few days later and took him and his personal assistant, Nonso Ezedigwe, into custody.
“That the cops held them at SARS Magbom, Abeokuta, together with his new Toyota Corolla.
That until a friend of his arrived at the station from Sagamu and the cops wanted N1 million in bail, he and his PA were held without being informed of their offense or having any kind of statement taken from them.
“That the police stipulated that the funds had to be deposited into his friend’s account before being transferred to them in cash. that they were freed as soon as the deal was completed. He refused to give a statement, though.
When the police called today calling him to report to Akure from Sagamu, he claimed that he had not seen Kazeem since the event almost three years ago. Sagamu is invited to report to Ondo Command, which is outside of Ogun Command’s purview, via phone.
In addition, Truecaller identified the police officer who called but wouldn’t give his name as ‘Ojo Elewaran’. He recalled that Elewaran is where they were taken three years earlier when he was arrested at the same Kazeem’s request and released after N1 million was seized from him. This time around, it’s the same Kazeem.
RULAAC therefore prompted Egbetokun to ask himself, “Would Mr. Ikechukwu be invited via a phone call if, as the police officer said, the alleged crime for which they contacted and summoned Mr. Ikechukwu to report at Akure Area Command entailed buying goods from accused armed robbery suspects? Is calling the police an acceptable or legitimate way to invite them?
The group continued, “Should the officers from Ondo not invite Mr. Ikechukwu via the Ogun Command?
“Mr. Ikechukwu believes that this arrest and detention are part of yet another scheme to frighten him and extract money from him in the future.
The officer who answered the phone when RULAAC dialed the number requested some time to speak with his superior officer. A short while later, the officer called again and requested that the RULAAC representative talk with a suspect who had accused Mr. Ikechukwu of cheating him. There was no mention of paying suspect robbers for stuff.
“RULAAC has strong suspicions that this is an attempt by a police extortion ring, which specialized in falsely accusing and arresting innocent people in order to demand money.
“RULAAC wants the IGP to order an investigation with the goal of uncovering and resolving these suspected criminal elements in the police that are damaging the Force’s reputation,” reads the request.
