A digital marketer, Ifeoluwa Adegoke, caused a stir on the social media
on Thursday after sharing her encounter with some operatives of the
Special Anti-Robbery Squad in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
Adegoke
said she was forced to part with N5,000 to save her life and that of
her colleagues, who were accosted by the policemen around 1.20pm while
going for a photo shoot.
The victim, who shared a snapshot
evidence of the fund transfer and the photo of one of the policemen,
alleged that the operatives threatened to kill them.
“With my
encounter today, it is safe to say SARS men are armed robbers. I was
going for a photo shoot in Ikorodu today (Wednesday) and armed robbers
SARS pulled us over and made us pay for no reason, threatening that they
were gonna waste our lives. I made a transfer so they can be traced,”
she wrote on her Twitter page.
The tweet went viral as some
Nigerians, who lived in the Ikorodu area, identified one of the
policemen, Inspector Omotosho Olushola Charles, as a habitual
extortionist.
They alleged that Charles had forced them at different times to part with various sums of money without committing any offence.
Adegoke, who later shared her ordeal in details, said the encounter gave her a new perspective of SARS men.
She
said, “My colleagues and I left Surulere for Ikorodu, where we were to
do a photo shoot. We were four in the car and I was the only female.
“When
we got to Ikorodu, the SARS operatives, who were in a vehicle, asked
our driver to stop; they were five in their bus – all fully armed.
“They
said we were suspected criminals and asked us to come down. They asked
the driver to come down too. They checked the car, took our phones and
went through them. When they did not find anything, they said we were
thieves and cult members.
“When I challenged them that we did
nothing wrong, one of them said he would slap me. I told my colleagues
to keep calm because I knew it would be stupid for us to argue with
armed policemen. I told my colleagues that they would demand money from
us in the end.”
She explained that after the search did not yield any fruit, the officials demanded N100,000.
Adegoke said she took the operatives through her social media account to show them that they were managing to survive.
“But
they said they did not care. I told the inspector that since we were
not the kind of people they were looking for and since they did not find
anything incriminating on us, they should just release us.
“They
said they were going to release us because we were not the kind of
people they were looking for; but they won’t release us for free. They
started cocking their guns to threaten us; they said they would shoot
us.
“I approached one of them and begged that we did not have the
N100,000 because we were only young people searching for our daily
bread. I told him that I had just N5,000 in my account and he should
allow me to transfer it to them,” she added.
She noted that the men refused to accede to her request, just as she remained adamant so as to have evidence of the extortion.
The social media enthusiast said after some murmurs of disapproval, the operatives agreed.
“After
we did the transfer, they did not allow us to go until they got a
credit alert on their mobile phone. The policeman who released his
account number told the others that he was with his ATM card and he
would withdraw the money for them to share.
“When we left, I
traced the name and discovered that his bank account name, Omotosho
Olushola Charles, is the same he uses for his Facebookaccount. That was
how I got his picture,” she added.
The victim, who demanded that
the policemen should be rounded up and prosecuted, said she and her
colleagues could have been killed if they did not have any money on
them.
She described the experience as an “eye-opener,” urging the authorities to reform the police force.
The
Head of the Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit, Abayomi Shogunle,
said Adegoke’s complaint had been received, adding that the police
inspector had been arrested.
“My dearest @ife_luv12, I am glad to
inform you that the account owner has been identified – Inspector
Charles Omotosho, FSARS Ikorodu, Lagos. He is in custody; preliminary
investigation ongoing. PCRRU will inform you on the next line of action.
Sorry for the experience,” he tweeted.
The spokesperson for the
Lagos State Police Command, SP Chike Oti, confirmed the arrest of the
inspector, adding that the police authorities were investigating the
incident.
He said, “We have arrested the policeman. His trial
will commence soon. Any other person found culpable in the course of
investigation will be made to face the full wrath of the law.”
Saturday, 19 May 2018
New
Lagos SARS Operatives Who Extorted N5,000 From Woman And Her Friends Arrested
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