Lagos police detain officer for alleged N10,000 extortion over vehicle colour

The Lagos State Police Command has detained an officer from Area M Command for allegedly extorting N10,000 from a motorist in Idimu after wrongly claiming that the vehicle’s colour differed from its registration particulars.

The officer’s detention followed a social media post on Monday by @epiccycl, which showed him counting alleged extorted money after the victim claimed he had negotiated the initial N30,000 demand down before the officer let him go.

The motorist said the officer, who confirmed that the colour on his vehicle documents is ash, threatened to arrest him by wrongly insisting the vehicle was grey, but agreed to let him go if he paid a N30,000 bribe.

Confirming the officer’s detention, Lagos State Police Command spokesperson Abimbola Adebisi said investigations are ongoing and assured that updates will be made public as developments unfold.

The command said, “At any point in time when there is an update, everybody will be carried along, and there will be a press release for that. For now, an investigation is going on, the officer has been identified and is under detention at the command.”

The Complaint Response Unit also said in an earlier post on X that the officer had been identified and queried.

The CRU wrote, “UPDATE: The officer in the viral video has been identified, queried, and he’s undergoing further investigation at the @LagosPoliceNG, the outcome of the investigation will be made known to the members of the public as soon as possible. #NoToImpunity”

Narrating his encounter in the video, the extorted motorist said, “I was stopped by Nigerian policemen yesterday at Idimu, directly opposite Area M Command, and they have Idimu Police Station beside. This officer asked for my documents, which I presented. After checking, he called one of his colleagues, who checked it for him and gave the paper back to him. He gave another one, who also checked and gave the paper back to him.”

The motorist said that after about 30 minutes, the officer asked him the colour of his car and he replied ash, but the officer insisted it was grey and threatened to arrest him.

He added that he was initially demanded to pay N30,000, but after negotiating with the officer, he paid N10,000 before he was allowed to leave.