The Nigerian Police are in the news for doing what they seem to know best—extortion. This time, it’s about three innocent corps members who had the misfortune of crossing paths with the Lagos Police in Surulere. Apparently, these officers thought it was business as usual, allegedly robbing the corps members of a whopping N1 million, all because they didn’t have a physical copy of their driver’s licenses.
In this age of digital documentation, not having a paper driver’s license now equals a million-naira offense, according to our friends at the Surulere Police Command. The officers allegedly threatened the corps members with firearms, kidnapped them, and carted them off to the Kafaru Oluwole Tinubu House at Area C Police Command. There, the real crime happened—they were reportedly robbed, not by roadside hoodlums but by the very people meant to protect them.
Social media influencer Oluyemi Fasipe wasn’t about to let this go unnoticed. He took to X (formerly Twitter), calling out the Lagos Police and specifically tagging the command’s spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin. Fasipe didn’t mince words:
“Your officers today in Surulere extorted 1 million naira from three corps members. They were threatened with firearms, kidnapped, and taken to the Kafaru Oluwole Tinubu House Area C Police Command of the @LagosPoliceNG where they were robbed.” He ended his tweet with a fitting conclusion: “This is evil!”
Benjamin Hundeyin didn’t deny the incident but tried to play damage control. He confirmed that the officers involved have been summoned and that their trial is underway. “The men have been summoned and their trial has commenced,” Hundeyin wrote in response to Fasipe’s post. He even invited the complainants to visit the Complaint Response Unit at the State Headquarters to testify.
You’ve got to admire the irony, though. The same police force that can’t seem to get its act together to protect citizens from armed robbers is quick to pull out firearms on corps members over a missing document.
