Lagos Police and the Extortion Business, By ‘Tope Fasua

Inspector General Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, I support your work; but beyond your Head Quarters, your men have become hardened criminals. Many work hand in glove with kidnappers; others kidnap themselves. This is not how a country should be. Please find a way and shake up the entire Lagos command. This is beyond the pale.

On March 29, 2017 I woke up at 4 a.m. Nigerian time in Accra, Ghana and started to get ready for my return to Nigeria. I had to take a flight from Lagos to Kaduna and then go by road to Abuja. Upon getting to the dreaded Murtala Muhammad Airport, I found out I had left my few naira notes, which I needed to make my way within Nigeria, at the hotel. The only option I had was to go to the bank to collect some money across the counter. After being dragged left and right by Nigerians at that airport (you cannot stop the hustling), I ended up with one old Alhaji. We made our way to Osolo Way and the man said there was a branch of the bank that I wanted to use on the opposite side of the airport road. We changed course and meandered as taxi drivers alone can on Lagos roads. In a bid to shorten the journey, the man used a shortcut which took him through Apakun Oshodi. As we were about to burst out back onto the express road, a motorcycle (Okada) overtook us and asked the driver to stop. Two guys and a lady alighted and came to the car. The taxi driver told them I was his passenger.

They asked to know who I was and I gave them my ID cards. I told them what I do for a living and all that. They took a cursory look at the ID and said I should follow them to their station at Mafoluku (Makinde). I had a 1.30pm flight on Air Peace to catch to Kaduna. I asked them why I needed to come to their station. Was I being arrested? If so, where was the arrest warrant and what is the charge? One of the ‘plain clothes’ policemen named Stanley was obviously an alcoholic or drug addict. He had his veins sticking out of his neck and his speech slurred. There was no way I would go with these people anywhere and so I stood my ground. In no time, these aggressive ‘policemen’ were making up charges. They said I was drunk. Another said I had a mental problem. They said I was a fraudster they had been looking for and all that. I decided that these people could be kidnappers and so my only weapon was to quickly draw up public attention. I alighted from the car and stood in the middle of the road and stopped traffic. People came out of their houses to see what was going on. One boy – probably 11 years old – was standing in front of a house on my left whispering something to me. I could make out he wanted me to stand my grounds with them. They later called some men from the State Armed Robbery Squad (SARS). Then I followed them to their notorious station. Here was I, ‘jejely’ trying to make my way to the bank and airport, but now being diverted to some dingy police station. In this rudderless country!

I went to the Makinde Police Station in company of a uniformed policeman and another in plain clothes. On getting there, my luggage was searched and I was asked to open my laptop. One detective who could hardly operate a laptop pretended he was doing something worthwhile on it. All he saw were articles and half-chewed articles. It was even then I remembered to tell them I was a journalist too… well a columnist. And that I have been for more than 12 years. I had warned them earlier that what they were doing would have consequences. I also told them that I was a political party leader. But I chose not to call my party people who could have appeared in their dozens. We were over 7,000 in number then (18,600+ now) and Lagos is our largest catchment zone.

Anyway, it came down to ‘as we stop you, you for just come station na’. Who does that, in this Nigeria full of kidnapping? The burly yellow plain-clothes policewoman among them said, ‘ehh we just want to ask you wetin you bring for us’. But they were vicious! They weren’t looking for small money. They are in the business of extortion. At some point at Apakun Oshodi, the residents trooped out in my support when Stanley tried to roughen me up and it was going to be a major incident. One woman told the driver that these policemen did that too often in that area and that they recently broke her son’s teeth with the butt of their gun in a recent ‘arrest’ on that street. They just lurk there and believe they can prey on innocent Nigerians. Coming from Ghana where everything is so orderly, one couldn’t help but hate Nigeria. I called the DIG of Police in charge of FCID at that point though. Long story. Maybe he believed I was a criminal despite knowing me at least from a distance for over one year.

President Buhari, welcome back, but this is the country we have become under your watch sir! This is just not the way to be as a people and it is unacceptable. In many parts of Nigeria, when we are not busy kidnapping ourselves, slaughtering children for money rituals, we are burning young people to ashes. The world is watching.

After wasting my time, they were begging for money. One of them asked me to take a picture of the dump that they called office where they hung their rags and shoes. I told them I already knew the problem; that I was a friend of the police, but I know that it’s one’s ‘friend’ that was likely to be one’s albatross. Igbo people say ‘onye ma mmadu ne gbu mmadu’. They laughed aloud, released me to go catch my flight just barely in time… I know they got the message that it’s not everyone they stop brashly on the streets that will follow them to some station like an idiot. They also saw that a flash mob was developing that could make the situation very sticky for them. I hope the people of Apakun Oshodi could get more confident as a result of my strong-headedness.

Mind you, there is nothing wrong with ‘stop and search’, but using one’s position, uniform or arms and ammunition to extort civilians is totally unacceptable. The PUNCH carried a report on August 19 – two days ago – which highlighted this problem. The business of chasing ‘yahoo boys’ is big among Lagos police especially, and spills over to Ogun, Oyo and other South-West states where young people are serially brutalised, especially in the poor areas. This nonsense does not happen in Victoria Island. It also doesn’t happen in the North of Nigeria. I don’t know what comes over policemen posted to Lagos, and the commissioner there had better act.

The PUNCH reported how they killed a woman in Isheri, who was just minding her business, while purportedly chasing yahoo boys. Another fellow who is a banker in London and his sister were abducted by police and extorted until he was released at 3 a.m. Another man narrated how he was beaten black and blue alongside his fiancé. Yet another narrated how these plain clothes policemen, sometimes working with SARS, abducted him from the gate of a bank in Lagos and extorted N100,000 from him just because he had a good phone. They make at least N500,000 a day per team at the minimum. Sometimes they make N3million daily.

President Buhari, welcome back, but this is the country we have become under your watch sir! This is just not the way to be as a people and it is unacceptable. In many parts of Nigeria, when we are not busy kidnapping ourselves, slaughtering children for money rituals, we are burning young people to ashes. The world is watching.

Inspector General Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, I support your work; but beyond your Head Quarters, your men have become hardened criminals. Many work hand in glove with kidnappers; others kidnap themselves. This is not how a country should be. Please find a way and shake up the entire Lagos command. This is beyond the pale.

‘Tope Fasua, an Economist, author, blogger and entrepreneur, can be reached through topsyfash@yahoo.com.