Lagos Residents Allege Police Extortion in Late-Night Ketu Raids

Lagos Residents Allege Police Extortion in Late-Night Ketu Raids
Among those arrested were two students of Yaba College of Technology
With no POS terminal available within the station, an officer escorted them outside to look for one

Residents of the Ketu–Alapere axis in Lagos State have accused policemen attached to the Ketu Division of conducting midnight raids and extorting money from innocent people under the guise of routine patrols.

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Eko Hot Blog gathered that officers reportedly stormed the area late Saturday, picking up passersby indiscriminately and bundling them into patrol vehicles during an operation that stretched deep into the night.

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Among those arrested were two students of Yaba College of Technology, who said they were returning from a church meeting when they were stopped. One of them, Solomon Adelumola, told PUNCH Metro that the officers ignored their explanation and their school identification cards before hauling them into a minibus.

“We were walking towards Ile-Ile bus stop when two men approached us. Before we realised what was happening, they grabbed us by our trousers. It wasn’t until they dragged us closer that we discovered they were policemen,” Adelumola said. “We kept telling them we were students coming from church, but they treated us like criminals and forced us into the vehicle.”

His colleague, David Owolabi, said the officers confiscated his phone and damaged it in the process. At the station, he said they met several other detainees arrested in the same manner.

According to Owolabi, every detainee was asked to pay at least N20,000 for bail, including after a senior officer heard their account. “The officer told us straight that unless we paid N20,000 each, we were not going anywhere,” he said. “We saw others pay and get released.”

Lagos Residents Allege Police Extortion in Late-Night Ketu Raids

After pleading that they were students with limited means, the officers agreed to take N10,000 each. With no POS terminal available within the station, an officer escorted them outside to look for one. When they couldn’t locate any, the students were given an Opay account number belonging to a POS operator and instructed to transfer N20,000.

Owolabi added that the policemen refused to disclose their real names, communicating only through nicknames. One officer, he said, was repeatedly called “Agba.” The students were eventually released around 2 am after spending more than two hours in custody.

When contacted, the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Adebisi, confirmed that the matter had been escalated. “I have forwarded the complaint to the Complaint Response Unit for investigation,” she said. “However, we will need the victims to come forward.”

The case adds to persistent complaints from Lagos residents who accuse some police officers of using night patrols as cover for harassment, extortion, unlawful detention and intimidation.