Mr. Emmanuel Adebayo has narrated his ordeal on how he was extorted by some unscrupulous men who claimed to be members of Lagos Task Force along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Berger/Olowora axis on the 25th November, 2020.
He told CEOAFRICA in a phone conversation that the unscrupulous men, working not far away from the view of Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) at the traffic light stand will deliberately direct vehicles into the road that links to the expressway while the light is on red.
“As I was turning into Lagos-Ibadan expressway from Ojodu, approaching the roundabout, some men stopped me claiming I have violated the traffic light. Because of this, I am under arrest and I should drive them to their office at Alausa,” he said.
He added that once a vehicle is being sighted, these men rush to it and have it arrested under the guise that the vehicle has committed an offence, despite the fact that one of them gives a signal to drive on.
Mr Emmanuel recounted that after he was being accused of an offence he did not commit, he was told to pay a fine of one hundred and twenty thousand naira (#120,000) or have his vehicle impounded until the payment is made. He added that after lot of arguments and harassments, a bargain of an amount ranging from thirty thousand naira (#30,000) to one hundred thousand naira (#100,000) was initiated, if he did not want his vehicle seized.
Furthermore, he maintained that in a situation of no cash at hand, a request to make transfer of funds will be made; afterwards, the vehicle could be released. CEOAFRICA was told that “several car owners and motorists fell into this trap and were also forced to pay into a private account belonging to a UBA account number: 2147596808 of one Ajibade Adeniran,” in which a copy of the transaction was shown to CEOAFRICA.
When asked the reason for the request of such amount, Mr. Emmanuel revealed and quoted that “Lagos state buses were burnt during the #ENDSARS protest and the state Governor has sent us out to recover the money.”
According to him, the sad event happened on his way to a function that was important. Unfortunately, he was delayed by these dishonest men.
However, Mr. Emmanuel lamented that with much pleas and arguments, the so-called task force collected the sum of thirty thousand naira (#30,000). Therefore, he is calling on the state government and the Lagos State Police Command to look into the matter and conduct an investigation on it.
