Like a scene out of a gangster movie, a man Dr Babatunde Oloyede has been ‘robbed’ of the sum of N280,000 by a team of policemen led by a sergeant, who had arrested him under the flyover bridge at Ojuelegba, Lagos on allegation of committing crime. Asst. Editor, SINA FADARE reports.
March 18, 2014 is a day Dr Babatunde Oloyede a Nigerian working as an expatriate in Costa Rica will remember for the rest of his life. It was the day a team from the Nigeria Police accosted him under the flyover bridge at Ojuelegba in Lagos and ‘robbed’ him at gunpoint of the sum of N280,000.
It was a day that began on a promising note but ended badly when he was rough handled by a man who he initially thought was a hoodlum but later identified as Sergeant Eshue Augustine with police no 247516.
Oloyede who had just returned from Costa Rica where he was residing with his family and was going to the church on this faithful day was shocked that he could be accused of being a criminal by Augustine in broad day light even when nothing incriminating was found on him. Sergeant Augustine later dragged him to his other colleagues seated in a yellow painted commercial bus parked somewhere under the bridge.
According to Oloyede in a petition to the police and a human rights advocacy group, ‘Citizen Right Empowerment Initiative’, alleged that Augustine with his other colleagues Stg. Mohammed Yahaya with police no 356567, not only threatened to send him to Kirikiri prisons, but said they are ready to set him free if he could part away with N500,000.
“I thought l was in the hand of armed robbers because Augustine who first accosted me was in mufti, until l was dragged to the Danfo bus where a driver was permanently on the wheel and was asked to drive me to Kirikiri if l did not cooperate with them. I was scared with the way they were cocking their guns as another police officer who put on a pull over to cover his identity also came over to tell me that the best way for me was to cooperate because l may not get to Kirikiri before my life would be terminated. This forced me to agree to play ball.
“At this point my wallet was thoroughly searched by Augustine who found nothing inside apart from my Bible, cheque book and documents relating to my family. When he saw these documents he was enraged, shouting that they are forged documents and that if the I.G monitoring team should see me, l may spend 24 years behind bars and that there is no lawyer that can bail me out of this crisis unless l cooperated with him,” he lamented
At this point, Oloyede’s two phones had been confiscated and he was led to the nearest ATM to collect the said amount but he resisted, insisting that he cannot give them the half a million being demanded for because the money in his account was intended to be used for his ticket back to his base in Costa Rica.
Augustine was more enraged and he later introduced Yahaya as a police commissioner who can determine his case and fate and that the ealier he cooperated with him the better it would be.
“At this point l told them that l can only withdraw N280, 000 from my account and that this could only be done across the counter. They forced me into the Danfo vehicle and the driver who must have been working for them did not utter a word, he was told to drive to the nearest Guarantee Trust Bank, GTB at Bode Thomas, Oba Akran way Surulere.
“At the bank, Stg. Augustine followed me inside and warned that l should not discuss with anybody while the two others and the driver of the Danfo bus were outside the bank. Immediately l withdrew N280, 000, we both went out and he said l should follow him to a corner where he collected the money. When he did, I then asked for my phones which had been seized and they were given to me with a warning that l should not receive any call or call anybody till they will drop me off.
“Later they took me round for a while before we got to (Lagos) Island under the bridge by the lake side, they said l should get out of the bus, when l complained that after all, l had settled them and l don’t know anywhere around this place, Augustine then got out of the bus and Yahaya assured me that he will drop me off at Ojuelegba with a warning that if l make any attempt to report the case anywhere, they will deny it, frustrate me and my life will be wasted because this is the business they are doing for a living.” he said
Oloyede trauma did not end there; he later reported the case to a non Governmental Organisation, ‘Citizen Right Empowerment Initiative’ who advised him to contact a lawyer and then report the case to police authority. Three days after the incident he reported the case to the IG monitoring team at Kam Salem, House, Obalende where Superintendent Gbenga attended to him.
Gbenga eventually caught Augustine and his cohorts in the act at Ojuelegba when they wanted to ‘rob’ another victim, a manager with Nigeria Football Federation, NFF; Gbenga intervened and took all of them to Obalende. He later confirmed that they are not armed robbers as he initially envisaged. It was at Obalende that the case was officially reported to the Provost Marshall.
‘After interrogation and Augustine who initially denied ever seeing me before now confessed that he actually searched me but vehemently denied that he collected any money from me. Later after we left their office he charged at me that since he had warned me not to report the case and I was proving too stubborn, he will tell me that nothing will come out of the investigation and l am going to be the loser because he will terminate my life, no matter the involvement of any lawyer and that if l like l should engage the service of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN)”
As predicted by Stg. Augustine, nothing came out of the Provost Marshal’s office as all of them decided to frustrate Oloyede by blaming him why for not raising an alarm when the officers were dealing with him.
“Despite the fact that the police authority went to the bank to collect the CCTV camera and said Augustine was identified inside the banking hall that day by one Inspector Garuba Mohammed, they still blamed me for not shouting while inside the bank, even if Augustine was ready to shoot me as l claimed”
When The Nation went to Ojuelegba to verifying the veracity of Oloyede’s claim, it was discovered that Augustine and his colleagues, Yahaya are so popular among the drivers and hawkers under the bridge to the extent that Yahaya was being referred to as a police commissioner.
Speaking to The Nation on condition of anonymity, a driver who is an executive member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW in Lagos State said Augustine and his colleagues have constituted themselves into a powerful clique to the extent that anybody who reports them could be killed.
“As you know they cannot be operating under this bridge in the last two years without having a godfather in their office. At times some of their victims thought they were armed robbers because most of the time they were in mufti. Can you believe that they paid some of the Danfo drivers that they are using on a full booking everyday” he lamented
At the office of the Lagos State Police Public Relation Officer, PPRO, the Deputy PPRO, Assistant Superintendent Lelma Kolle told The Nation he had once been a victim of such assault under Ojuelegba bridge when he was working at Apapa.
According to him the man who accosted him was dressed in mufti and he concluded he was one of those hoodlums who operate under police cover to perpetrate evil. “when the guy demanded to know what was inside my bag, l gave it to him and he asked me to open it, when l did, he saw my uniform and said so you are an officer, why didn’t you identify yourself earlier, in annoyance and because l was getting late l just left the scene.”
At Kam Salem House in Obalende, The Nation met a brick wall as our correspondent was not allowed to see the Provost Marshal who was in charge of Oloyede’s case. However a police Inspector said “the more you look, the less you see when you are talking about disciplining police officers who took bribe here, because a lot of intrigues and deceits are involved.”
He confessed that a lot of people have been victims of Augustine and his colleagues who also make a lot of returns to some top officers. That is why they are always confident that any case you brought against them will be thrown into the trash bin. But as l used to tell them, God is watching”
It is obvious that Dr Oloyede who is a PhD holder has been frustrated and he could not travel to his family in Costa Rica, neither can he sleep with all eye closed as Augustine has promised to waste his life.
“l am a frustrated man now because my family has been sent away from Costa Rica because l was supposed to be there to renew my contract, but this is not possible and to make matters worse l cannot send money to them due to my account that is in red. I cannot believe that this is what Nigeria that l left almost twenty years ago has turned to,” he lamented.
