Lagos State Police Command says it has commenced orderly room trial for five policemen at FESTAC Police Station for allegedly collecting N200,000 from a Dubai-based Nigerian who was home visiting his family.
The policemen had allegedly followed the victim to a local Point of Sale (POS) cash point in FESTAC where the said amount was extorted from him.
The policemen had accosted the victim while driving home in an Uber car.
It was learnt that the victim who recently arrived in the country from Dubai, and was also heading home from the airport, had shared the story of how police officers in FESTAC town stopped him and extorted N200, 000 from him.
#EndSARS promoter, Rinu, initially shared the story of the man on her Twitter handle.
She wrote, “A young Nigerian came back from the UAE this morning; took Uber from the airport to FESTAC and bumped into Nigerian police officers who profiled; unlawfully searched his phone, harassed and dragged him to their station. See why some of us haven’t removed #EndSARS from our displays?
The man later took to Twitter to reveal his identity and also recount how the incident happened.
Lagos State Police Spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, who confirmed the incident, said all the policemen involved are being tried at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja.
Adejobi said the trial would determine the level of complicity of those involved.
According to Adejobi, “We have arrested all of them and the money recovered and returned to the man. The policemen will soon face trial and be punished. We have the whole team in the cell and they would be given orderly room trial,” he said.
Adejobi , however, did not disclose if the DPO of Festac would also be tried along with them for what people called “lack of supervision”.
