Several Lagos State residents have accused officers of the Nigeria Police Force of extortion, harassment, and illegal detention along the road leading to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MM1) terminal in the state.
A victim with the name, Ten Man and X handle @TenmanNoble1, has narrated his ordeal, sharing receipts of the money allegedly extorted from him by the police officers.
He wrote: “@PoliceNG Your men are running an illegal operation at the road that leads to MM1 airport terminal. At 5:30 am this morning, I was heading to the airport for my flight, which was by 7:30 am. I was detained, and my phone was in their custody. They checked my messages and pictures and found nothing, then they proceeded to my notes and found a love letter which I wrote to my girlfriend many years ago. They then tagged me as a “Yahoo boy” and refused to give me back my phone.
“After a while, they told me they could only release me on one condition. They got a nearby POS machine and asked me to withdraw 260K. This was almost 7:00 am. I could have missed my flight, but my flight was later delayed for an hour. I hate y’all so much.”
In response, the Lagos State Police spokesperson CSP Benjamin Hundeyin said, “Airport Police Command. Please call and keep us updated.”
The official police complaint unit @PoliceNG_CRU also responded: “@TenmanNoble1, kindly check your DM and provide the required response so as to commence an investigation, thank you .”
However, more Lagos residents have stepped forward with similar allegations, highlighting what they describe as a widespread and systematic operation of police harassment at the airport and its environs.
Another victim, @enilowo, wrote: “I met the same policemen on my way out of the airport on Saturday morning, and when they started making their demands, I requested to be taken to the station because I was not going to give them my phone under any guise except with a valid court order. They called ‘wahala man’ and told me to go.”
Similarly, @ib_georgee narrated: “Same thing happened to me… they tricked me into showing them my flight reservations, and that’s how they started going through my phone. But when they saw what’s bigger than them, they let me go. I was boiling that day. So these harassments still happen @PoliceNG.”
Another user, @RealOlaudah, alleged that the Nigerian police extorted his nephew:
“The Nigerian Police Force is a criminal organization. They did this to my little nephew and fleeced him of N150K.”
The rising complaints about police extortion at the Lagos airport have reignited public outrage, with many Nigerians expressing frustration over the unchecked misconduct of security operatives.
This latest wave of accusations comes just days after human rights activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore called out the Nigerian police for what he described as an institutionalized culture of extortion. In a recent post, Sowore decried the rampant harassment of Nigerians by rogue officers, particularly in Lagos, where innocent citizens are routinely stopped, searched, and coerced into paying bribes under various pretenses.
Despite repeated assurances from authorities about police reforms, incidents like these continue to surface, raising questions about the sincerity of the government’s commitment to ending police brutality and corruption in Nigeria.
Source: SaharaReporters
