Ondo Police arrest innocent FUTA student; force him to pay N25,000 for his freedom

FIJ

Emmanuel Atere, an X user and student of the Federal College of Technology Akure (FUTA), has accused officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) attached to the institution’s branch of extorting N25,000 from him after breaking into his room to arrest him.

In a series of X tweets on Friday, Atere stated that the officers from the Anti-Cultist Akure Station, FUTA Branch, broke into his room without a search warrant and scattered his apartment looking for something they did not disclose.

He explained that when the officers didn’t find anything incriminating on him, they demanded he followed them to their station. But this was after seizing his phone when he attempted to alert someone to their presence.

“I was in my room this morning when I heard a slamming knock on my door,” he wrote.

“When I opened it, they were Nigerian police officers. They barged in and started searching my apartment without any search warrant (not that if I asked, they would even show me) and scattered the whole apartment.

I was in my room this morning, when i heard a slamming knock on my door.
When i opened, they were Nigerian police officers.

They barged in and started searching my apartment without no search warrant (not that if i asked they would even show me), scattered the whole apartment.… https://t.co/LyZdbh90zP

— 🇨🇦Canadian Spirit🇨🇦🇳🇬 (@Princeflexzy0) December 6, 2024

“They collected my cellphone when I opted to make a call to friends or family, telling them about my situation. Eventually, the search wasn’t fruitful because they found nothing incriminating.

“I was then asked to follow them to their station. After I was allowed to talk, I took my ID card and wore something. I locked my door (made a video of when I was getting my key and alighting from the bike, so I can use this video and more videos as evidence), and I followed them.”

The undergraduate further said that while he was being ushered into their vehicle, another student of the university who was simply walking along the road was ordered to stop and then made to join their vehicle.

He revealed that the officers labelled him “a cultist and a criminal”.

But the harassments by the officers didn’t end there; he said they searched his mobile phone looking for something to connect him with the crime he was accused of, but they found nothing.

He said before his release, they demanded he pay them for the fuel they wasted in arresting him. He said they made him send money to a PoS vendor with the name ‘Adelowo Folasade’ outside their station.

“We reached their office (Anti-Cultist Akure FUTA branch), and they asked me to unlock my phone. They searched and searched but found nothing related to cultism (which I was accused of) or anything related to internet fraud.

“After wasting my time, they then asked me to come somewhere private, gave me my phone, and asked me to transfer a certain amount of money to them as a fuel fee they waste, even after disrupting my peace, my sanity, and my apartment,” he said.

“After I regained my freedom and the amount I pressed to a POS outside the police station. I’m not even after this money right now; it’s the least of my worries.

“But why I am making this thread is there is a FUTA student, merely walking home I guess, who was arrested alongside me, and I haven’t seen him yet. He hasn’t been released, so I am making this information known. Let’s get him out, and we need to know his situation.”

When FIJ called the Ondo State Police Command for a reaction on Atere’s arrest and the yet-to-be-identified FUTA student on Saturday, the control room, where the call went to, said they contacted the Officer in charge (OC) and he informed them that the case had been resolved.

THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN FIJ