Righteous Onobrakpeya, a prospective corps member undergoing his national youth service programme in Ogun State, has narrated how policemen attached to the Ogudu Police Station in Lagos State extorted N452,000 from him on Saturday.
Onobrakpeya was supposed to be in the camp with his colleagues, but he travelled to Lagos on health grounds. On Saturday, he got a taxi in the Ketu area of the state. After travelling for no more than five minutes, policemen stopped the vehicle.
It was past noon. The policemen dismissed the driver and took Onobrakpeya into custody after searching his phone and discovering he had a blockchain wallet with $1,000 in it.
“They asked me to come down, which I did with my phone in hand,” he told FIJ. “I told them I am a corps member returning from camp because I exited based on health issues. So they requested my ID card, and I gave it to them to see. They also searched my bags.”
Onobrakpeya said a policeman wittingly asked him to hand over his phone so he would be able to open his bag. When the policeman got hold of his phone, he seized it and, “said I should follow him to the car. They didn’t even check the bag, which made him offer to hold my phone in the first place”.
“They took me to their van and said I should unlock my phone. I was wondering; without hesitation, I did, and they started checking through. They saw my blockchain wallet, where I had $1,000. They said they needed $500, or we would go to their station. When I refused, they took me to the Ogudu Police Station.
“For hours, they kept negotiating until they agreed on $300 at the rate of N1500 per dollar, which is N450,000. After they monitored me trading it, they asked me to start writing statements. They also made me sign a statement saying they didn’t take any money from me.”
The police led Onobrakpeya to a PoS merchant at about 5 pm to withdraw the cash.
After transferring the sum, the police got the cash and then let him go. Onobrakpeya was able to get the name of one of the policemen: Uzor.
