Olabode Damilare recounts how some police officers allegedly extorted a university student in
Olabode Damilare, an X user, has narrated how some police officers in the Igbeba area of Ogun State stole a university student’s laptop on Tuesday.
Damilare explained on Wednesday that the student was returning home from school when he encountered the officers at a checkpoint in front of Igbegba Police Station.
The officers collected his laptop bag for a search. While checking the bag, the uniformed officers saw the student’s laptop and started accusing him of being a smoker and cultist, an accusation immediately refuted by the student.
The officers then demanded some money for “petrol” before releasing his laptop. After explaining the situation to his parents on the phone, the student gave them N2,000 and was let go.
“Rogue Nigeria Police officers struck again yesterday; they stole a laptop from a student’s bag while pretending to search him,” Damilare said. “Around 5:08 pm yesterday, I got a call from Egbon @allibaloo that a student returning home from School (OOU, School of Governance Studies) for the holiday was stopped in a Keke at Lagos Garage, in front of Igbeba Police Station, Ogun State by policemen on a ‘stop and search’ duty.
A recorded phone conversation between Damilare and the student’s father. Source: Damilare on X.
“They searched him, delayed him for meaningless reasons, they accused him of being a cultist, that he smokes weed. They slapped him and brutalized him. The boy called his mom, the mom couldn’t get the officers to release him, then he called his dad and the dad, furious enough told them they what they accused his child of is a lie, that he would reach out to the school authorities to come over to intervene.
“The policemen knowing that the matter would escalate begged that it shouldn’t get to that and asked the man to give them money for fuel. The man told his son to give them N2,000 from the N5,000 they sent him for transport, so they can let him go to get home in time. He was heading to Ifo.”
However, he had not gone far when he discovered that the officers did not return his laptop into his bag.
“Here’s the crazier twist: The boy got to Sagamu and found out that his laptop was no longer in his bag. Crazy right? He called his dad crying that his laptop is missing and he’s sure the policemen took it,” Damilare further said.
“The dad was with Egbon Alli at the time so Egbon called me to ask what they can do. I asked them to ask the boy again, to be sure he didn’t have any other stop-over, he said he was absolutely sure. This was a crazy one.
“So, I gave him the new CRU numbers to contact. While they were doing so, I called my brother @PrinceAdedigba1, he was shocked as well and he promised me that the laptop will be found if indeed the officers took it. He instructed that the boy should go back to the police station and call him once he confirms. When the boy got to the station, he identified one or two of the rogue policemen, he then called @PrinceAdedigba1 to inform him that he has visual confirmation.
“He spoke to a high ranking officer among them and after more than an hour of denial, the DPO (divisional police officer) started begging that he can buy a new laptop that he doesn’t want problems from Abuja as he’s almost retired, he also added that the officers are not from his station, that they only used the place to perpetrate their acts.
“The other officers started crying and begging that they should collect a new laptop, this was according to the boy. The father insisted that they would only take the boys laptop, not a new one. Around 7:30pm they produced the laptop that they initially denied knowledge of. The student identified it that it was indeed his own. I’ve been in shock since then. What in the manner of hell is this? Are they policemen or thieves???
Tagging the relevant police quarters, Damilare demanded that the concerned police officers be made to face disciplinary action.
“The rogue officers who robbed this student must be brought to justice, they have to pay for this madness. It’s the right thing to do. People can’t trust institutions if so called law enforcement agents have now repurposed their government cover to daylight robbery and theft gangs,” said Damilare. “The widespread extortion was bad but this is a crazier stage; it’s robbery.”
When reached for comment on Thursday, Awolowo Akandu Modupe, the divisional police officer at the station, and Omolola Odutola, the Ogun State police spokesperson, stated that the “matter has been sorted out”. But Odutola failed to comment on whether the officers would face any disciplinary action.
