Citizen Okubajo’s allegations against policemen

IN what would appear to be a recurring decimal, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is in the news again for the wrong reasons. A petition dated May 2, 2025 and submitted by Professor Yemi Oke, SAN, to the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, is alleging that four inspectors of police abducted and extorted N151.5 million from a Diasporan Nigerian, Segun Okubajo. The lawyer’s petition was at the behest of the victim’s father, Mr. Okubajo Kehinde. The petition alleged that four police officers, namely AP Mohammed Yusuf (No. 229655), AP Ojochenemi Jubrin (No. 227141), AP Rizama Reuben (No. 318195), and AP Isokpuwu John (No. 318172), kidnapped Mr. Okubajo in Lagos and whisked him away to Abuja. The victim was then held incommunicado for a period by these policemen who eventually succeeded in forcing his family to cough up the huge sum of money under threat and duress. This sounds like what terrorists would do.

“Our client’s son, Segun Okubajo, who had no criminal complaints against him from any source or by any person, was violently arrested on October 9, 2024, by the officers mentioned earlier. The said officers invaded his apartment with heavy weapons, switched off all his CCTV cameras, seized his phones, and held him incommunicado before forcefully taking him away in leg chains and handcuffs to the Office of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force CID, Area 10, Abuja,” said the petition. The illegal arrest was allegedly engineered by two police informants, Oladipo Ibrahim and Shedrach Luka, whose alleged specialty is targeting foreign-based Nigerians for extortion. Said the petition: “Our client’s brief to us is that Oladipo Ibrahim and Shedrach Luka are known informants who specialise in framing perceived foreign-based Nigerians in collusion with the above-named policemen and others.”

The petition claimed that the alleged informants capitalised on Segun Okubajo’s visit to Nigeria to orchestrate his ordeal through false allegations, without any complaint, and with the sole aim of criminal extortion. After carrying out the abduction, the policemen then allegedly demanded N1 billion from him and eventually settled for the “negotiated” sum of N151.5 million. Bent on saving the victim from harm, the family raised loans and contributions which came from friends and cooperative societies. Perhaps more disturbing is the alleged intimidation of the victim. The petition alleged that the accused policemen “resorted to acts of desperation, which include sending threatening messages to Segun Okubajo and members of his family against pursuing justice. They also threatened them from seeking justice through any other means or channel, in a desperate bid to cover or obliterate their criminal act.”

And, worse still, there was another allegation that some of the money extorted from the victim found its way into the pockets of some senior officers of the force. The policemen allegedly involved in this nefarious activity claimed that half of the extorted money went to a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG). The petitioners also alleged that after filing petitions in November 2024, one of which was sent directly to the IGP, they had faced persistent threats. They, therefore, demanded full investigation, immediate refund of the extorted sum, and disciplinary action against the officers involved. The petition was supported by “documents, videos, and pictures,” with the petitioners urging IGP Egbetokun to immediately take action on the petition.

Unless the allegations are false, this case is surely damaging to the image of the Nigeria Police Force. Nigerians and non-Nigerians hearing or reading of the case will take into consideration the notoriety associated with the NPF over the decades. The alleged abduction and extortion of money from a Nigerian citizen will certainly further reinforce the negative perception that many have about Nigeria and its government. To be sure, there are so many questions raised by this case. What offence did the suspect commit that warranted his abduction? How was the victim’s transfer to Abuja effected? Were the police authorities aware of this abduction, or was it a case of a cabal robbing innocent citizens at gunpoint, as usual? Who was the Bureau de Change operator who allegedly changed the said ransom money into dollars?

We ask the police to conduct a thorough and dispassionate investigation into this case. It smacks of the usual rot that has persisted for generations in the public space, and especially in the NPF. All too often, Nigerian policemen get accused of armed robbery and extortion. Surely, even if the suspect was guilty of whatever offences leveled against him, the policemen in question had no right to extort bribes from him and set him free. That is a criminal trade-off. Second, why was the suspect transferred out of the jurisdiction of the alleged crime to Abuja? Did the police authorities know about this? This case must be investigated thoroughly so that the Nigerian public can have a full picture of what transpired. It is scary to think that a Nigerian citizen can be abducted at any time and subjected to whatever horrors criminals in police uniform can create. The world is a global village, and stories like this go viral very quickly, casting Nigeria in extremely negative light. If innocent citizens get hounded by law enforcement while criminals operate unchallenged, then the country is headed downhill.

The already battered image of the police is at stake. The only way to salvage the situation is for the police to investigate this case thoroughly and prosecute whoever is indicted in the court of law. Failure to do so will come with dire consequences.

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