Oscar Chihurumnanya: @Oscarchinanya, an artist, has taken to his Twitter handle to reveal how police operatives demanded the sum of N3 million from him along the Second Rainbow area of Mile 2, Lagos State and then threatened to shoot him for saying he did not have such an amount of money.
According to him, it occurred on June 23, 2022 at about 9:45am to 9:50 am, while he was on his way to a rehearsal.
Chihurumnanya stated that while walking to the tricycle park, he noticed some people manhandling an individual, whom he thought was a thief.
He said: “Just as I was seated in the ‘keke’, a man in mufti with a face mask accosted me and flashed his ID card, introducing himself as a policeman.
“He said they were carrying out a stop and search exercise, adding that I needed to be searched and of course, asked that I alight from the ‘keke’ in order for him to freely carry out the exercise.
“I listened to him and got down as asked.
“Then he told me to search myself which I did and nothing incriminating was found on me, but he also searched me to confirm.”
Chihurumnanya explained that after the search, the policeman asked him to open his bag and show the content, which he did.
It was after he had opened his bag that the man sighted some money and started quizzing him about it.
He added: “I told him it was a thrift contribution money and zipped my bag afterward.
“He further asked me for my means of identification, and I showed him my valid NIN slip but according to him, that wasn’t substantial.
“So, he proceeded to ask about my occupation, and I told him that I am an actor, a professional background vocalist, and a makeup artist.
|He asked if I had anything to prove that I was any of the acclaimed things and I showed him videos and pictures to corroborate my claims.
“Lest I forget, this was happening right in front of a white minibus that belonged to the supposed policemen interrogating me.”
Chihurumnanya further said that while the interrogation was on, one of the supposed policemen asked if he was a cyber fraudster, which he denied.
He added: “Not to forget, these guys were all on face masks and one of them still had my phone with him.
“The one with my phone typed in the word ‘yahoo’ on my WhatsApp, found a chat with the word and instantly landed a heavy slap on my face while the others pushed me into the bus popularly known as ‘korope.’
“While we were all in, one of them was asking the others to cuff my hands and they did.
“I was utterly speechless at first but of course, I knew things were already getting out of hand and I had to speak up, so I asked them why I was being handcuffed and told them to go ahead and read the message that had the word ‘yahoo’ to see if I was truly a cyber fraudster, but they refused and kept slapping me as hard as they could while preaching to me the legal consequences of being a ‘yahoo boy,’ which included going to jail according to them.
“As soon as I heard this, I asked that I be taken to the nearest police station if indeed I had committed a crime, but instead of doing as I asked, they kept on yelling and slapping me and then they finally said that if I didn’t have up to three million naira (N3m) to bail myself out of the situation, I was going to be jailed and I thought to myself at that moment that if truly I had that much, I certainly would have left the country a long time ago.
“These guys kept me with them until past 10:am and decided to move me with them at around 10:46 am.
“I had thought we were heading to the nearest police station until I realised we had driven past ‘First Gate’ all the way from ‘Second Rainbow.’”
Chihurumnanya said that the men finally stopped at a long-deserted bridge with a canal on either sides and asked him how much he had in his account and the number of bank accounts he had.
He replied that he had just one and they asked how much he had in it.
He further recounted: “While the question was going on, one of the policemen screamed, ‘in short, it’s three million (N3m) you will use to bail yourself out of this situation.
“We don’t know what’s wrong with you.
“Do you know you can be jailed?’
“He screamed these statements at the top of his voice, but as I responded earlier, I asked to be taken to the police station for the umpteenth time but again, none of that happened.
“Instead, they resumed slapping me and one of them threatened to gun me down, adding that nothing was going to happen if they killed me right on that spot.”
Chihurumnanya noted that it was at this point that he got more terrified because he could tell that the men were drunk, and he knew that they had pistols.
He knew the situation was getting out of hand and decided to plead with the men.
He said: “I begged with these people for my life, but it was clear from the looks on their faces that they were thirsty for blood and money.
“It had moved from an empty threat to a possible actual murder.
“It was either my money or my life at that point, and they could have driven me anywhere and ended my life.
“One finally told others to just collect what I had on me.
“While all of this was going on, my head was down because I was instructed to keep it down.
“The obvious reason for that was to ensure I didn’t see their name tags and that worked because I couldn’t catch their names.
“There were three policemen in uniforms while the other two who were seated next to me were both on mufti but the five of them were all on face masks.”
Chihurumnanya said that he was further driven to an unknown place and ordered to withdraw all he had at a Point of Sale outlet.
He said: “I had N53,992 in my account and withdrew N50,700 for them and they collected the receipt.
“They also collected the thrift contribution money, which was a sum of N70,000 that was in my bag.
“They took me back to the bus while still with my phone and checked for the alert to confirm how much I had left in my account.
“They thought they had seen N32,000 in my account and started yelling again until I showed them that it was just N3,292 that was left, and they confirmed.
“After that, they finally handed me my bag and my phone and stopped a bike for me, but I told them I had no idea where I was so they asked me where I was going, I told them, and I finally got on the bike without asking about how much the transportation would cost because I just wanted to leave.
“I still didn’t realise where I was until the bikeman had ridden past Festac bridge.
“They left me at about past 11:am after which the guys I was supposed to meet at rehearsal had called me severally but had their calls being aborted by those policemen.
“I finally got to the estate I was supposed to be and paid the bike man N500 after he had said that was how much it cost and that made me realise how far I was from where the policemen picked me up from.”
