A Nigerian man has narrated on Twitter how operatives of the Nigeria Police Force profiled him as a fraudster and extorted N7500 from him on the popular Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
According to the man, who gave his identity as Mufti Of Ilorin Online on his Twitter page, the police stopped him and checked his car papers and gadgets but found nothing incriminating.
He added that the police started questioning the source of his wealth and concluded that he was a “Yahoo boy”, a name Nigerians commonly call a fraudster.
He wrote: “Good day everyone, I was stopped by men of Nigeria police force at Lagos–Ibadan express way. After they’ve checked all my car documents and my phones, now they’re asking for my laptop receipt, I told them I’m not with it but I can unlock the laptop to prove ownership. They said I must give them receipt or bribe my way out of them. They’re with my laptop and Samsung phone. This place is too quiet and I’m scared. They are asking for 200,000.
“They asked what job am I doing that’s making me use iPhone and Samsung, I told them I’m a freelancer on @Upwork they said it’s yahoo boys that use it. They said I look like yahoo boy. They are inside my car already and they’re driving me toward Ibadan. We are in front of one NIKAZ petrol station.”
Moments later, Mufti confirmed that he had been released by the police after they cooled the sum of N7500 from him.
“I’ve been freed, they collected the N7500 I’ve with me,” he added.
Another Twitter user, Fibrah also claimed he had a similar experience in Ibadan recently. He narrated that operatives of the Nigerian police framed him as a fraudster and extorted the sum of N15,000 from him.
He said, “I had similar encounter, I was coming from a job interview in Lagos, I had to be in Ilorin the next day. So, I travelled in the night around 12pm I got to Ibadan and took a bike to motor park to board an Ilorin car, then I noticed the bike man was speeding abnormally.
“So I asked him why and that he should slow down, the guy told me he was avoiding police because they use to harass people in that route, before I know I saw a police vehicle trailing us, they later overtook us and asked us to stop, they started searching my bags.”
Fibrah claimed that despite showing the police documents to show that he was not a fraudster as they alleged, they (police) insisted that he should enter their vehicle and followed them to station.
He continued: “I told them I was coming from interview and it's even evident because I have documents of certificate with me, they searched my phone and they told me I'm a yahoo, without no single evidence, they told me they put me inside their vehicle and we're trying to take me away.
“I got scared because it was late in d night, and I don't know where they are taking me to, they collected my last 15k, and the officers told me to wipe out the transaction history, I told him I can't do that that it's from the bank, till 2day I still have the transaction details.”
When SaharaReporters called the Oyo State Police Spokesman, Adewale Osifeso for his reaction, he said the force was already investigating the matter.