Police operatives in Lagos State allegedly demanded the sum of N300, 000 before tracking a stolen car.
FirstNews gathered that the owner of the car, a victim of an armed robbery attack at Ogombo, Ajah reported the case of his stolen Toyota Venza car at Ogombo Police Division.
The police on duty, instead of swinging into action, allegedly insisted on collecting N300,000 before they can track the car.
A short video of the attack posted on Twitter on Thursday by one Davey Quid, @daveyishigh, who claimed to be one of the victims of the building were the armed attack and stole the vehicle, showed different parts of the apartment in shambles. There were several bullet holes on a bed in one of the rooms in the flat.
“Laptop, phone, everything; they carried everything; everything,” someone lamented in the background while filming the rooms.
In two separate tweets accompanying the video and pictures of the stolen car, @daveyishigh stated that they approached police at the Ogombo division to help fine the car but they demanded N300,000 for ‘mobilisation.’
“Armed men came to my crib; stole laptops, phones and even took the car of my guy that came to visit me… Ogombo division kept mocking us and telling us we deserved it because we ended SARS….they’re demanding N300,000 to help search for the missing car.
“They sent us out of the station because we couldn’t provide them N300,000. We even begged them with N100,000 but all fell on deaf ears,” Quid said in his tweets.
However, the police denied demanding money to track the stolen car, claiming that one of the victims had distanced himself from the tweets.
A video of the victim, one Anthony Ojah, debunking the allegation at the police station, was obtained by City Round.
In the clip, Ojah stated that his home appliances and car were stolen, adding that the police were already assisting to recover them.
He said, “I was the one who was robbed in Ogonbo around 2am. A lot of people came to my house, taking videos of my home and showing sympathy. One way or the other, I don’t understand who brought out the story about police asking for N300,000 to help me find my property.
“My appliances and car were stolen. I called the police and so far so good the police have been helping to track the car. And I hope they will help me recover other property. I never asked anybody to help me circulate the incident. I am a private person. That news (demanding bribe) was false.”
The police spokesperson in the state, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed the robbery but refuted the allegation that the police demanded N300,000 for mobilisation.
He said, “The allegation (that police demanded money) is false. There are methods we will use to arrest the suspects and recover the car. Our Technical Intelligence Unit is helping us with the investigation.”