Published 10th Apr, 2022

By Emmanuel Uti

Tola Gabriel, a Twitter user, has alleged that police officers from the Ago Police Division, Lagos, detained him, abused him, and extorted N50,000 from him on the orders of one C.O. Okafor.

In a Twitter thread dated April 9, Gabriel said he was at the office of one of his clients, Adekunle Samad, in Ago Palace on April 5 when the incident happened. He tweeted that as soon as he and his partner entered the client’s office, three police officers quizzed them.

“Are you the photographer?” Gabriel quoted a policeman to have asked. “The moment I said ‘yes’, they arrested me and my friend and immediately handcuffed us right in Samad’s office. I demanded to know what my offence was, but no one talked to me,” he said.

“I heard gun cocks from one of the policemen. He told me to keep quiet or get shot. By this time, they were seizing our phone. That was how they whisked us away with no explanation. The time was 3:15 pm when we got to the Ago Police Division led by C. O. Okafor.”

He said Samad showed up after the police left him at the back of the counter for two hours. Gabriel stated that Samad asked him to unlock his phone, which he did. This was after Samad met the Divisional Police Officer (DPO). The time was 6 pm and Gabriel was still at the entrance of the cell with his friend.

Illegal detention, maltreatment and extortion of N50,000 by C.O Okafor of Ago Palace Police Division Lagos Dear @benhundeyin @PoliceNG_lagos On April 5 2022, I woke up to the quest of sourcing for sponsors for our next project poised to take 100 tourism entuastics to Idere Hills
— Tola Gabriel (@ATGpaparazzi) April 9, 2022

He said Samad stood up to leave after some time but did not tell him what he did. He demanded that Samad explain what was happening to him.

“Samad said someone had been trying to blackmail him. He said a staff member of his said the said blackmailer once visited one of my tour trips. I was dumbfounded at the professionalism of the Ago Police Division,” he said.

“Samad returned my phone to the policeman that arrested us. He showed me the blackmailer’s face on his phone, but I didn’t even know the guy.”

Gabriel told the policeman that he had organised many events and he could not know the person. He said he told Samad to order the police to let him go, but he would rather leave him there.

“C.O Okafor showed us hell. He treated us like criminals and threatened to put us in the cell. Our efforts to get our phone and call someone to save us from the unwarranted mess were futile. Around 7:30 pm, he gave me my phone to call a surety that could come and bail us,” said Gabriel.

Gabriel said he called Samad, but he ignored his calls. He stated that he immediately suspected that Samad must have paid the policemen to deal with them. He said he then called a friend with whom Okafor would negotiate their bail.

“They requested N250,000 from my friend for our bail. They refused to talk to any other people who called, as we had got word across to others about our ordeal. At about 10:45 pm, they extorted us forcefully. We paid N50,000 in cash to C. O. Okafor and a compulsory N5,000 as the counter fee,” he said.

When FIJ contacted Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos police spokesperson, he said he was aware of the issue. He said the police had identified C. O. Okafor.

“We have identified the officer in question. He would be at the state headquarters tomorrow,” Hundeyin stated.

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