Diekola Animashaun, a student of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), has narrated how policemen arrested him and Timilehin Abiona, his friend, in Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Saturday.

Animashaun told FIJ that they were going to Akure from Lagos when the policemen stopped them at a checkpoint in Ife. The policemen checked their boot and asked who the owner of the car was.

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“My friend told them he was the owner of the car. They noticed we were students and started threatening us. They told us to get into the car. Two policemen took us to the station. One of them collected the car key from my friend,” said Animashaun.

He said they asked for what their offence was but one of the policemen told them they would know when they got to the station. “He told us that they had been given a directive to arrest people like us and hand us over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),” he said.

The victims asked the policemen to confirm from their phones that they were not fraudsters, but the officers refused. “Having been a victim of police extortion before then, I tried to beg the officers to release us so we could get to our destination on time. They requested N200,000, but I told them I had only N10,000,” said Animashaun.

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“They started threatening us and took us to the entrance of a police station one of them called the ‘Area Command’. We later agreed on N45,000 after pleading.”

Animashaun said the policemen took them to a point of sales (PoS) and his friend withdrew N45,000 from his account and gave it to them. He added that the policemen drove them back to the checkpoint after they had collected the money.

FIJ placed several calls to Yemisi Opalola, the Osun State Police Public Relations Officer, but she rejected them. A text message sent to her had also not been responded to at press time.