A man identified as Michael Atayegbare has accused some Nigerian police officers of extortion, harassment, and assault at a checkpoint in the Musogah community, Delta State.
Atayegbare, speaking to Reporters, alleged that the incident occurred on Friday while he and his family members were traveling for his younger sister’s introduction ceremony.
He accused officers of extorting N180,000 from him after he was forced to write an incriminating statement.
According to Atayegbare, the officers had initially stopped their public transport vehicle at the checkpoint and ordered passengers to disembark for a search.
He recounted that while other passengers were allowed to check their own belongings, one officer insisted on taking his phone, a demand he refused because the police had no right to seize it.
“I told him I could open my pouch myself, just like the others, but I wouldn’t hand him my phone because he had no legal right to it,” Atayegbare said.
“Suddenly, he started shouting that I had a razor and was a drug addict, calling for backup and labeling me a criminal.”
He further alleged that additional officers arrived at the scene, with one striking him on the neck with a baton while others accused him of drug possession without evidence.
He said, “I told the policeman to remove his own pouch since he wanted mine open. He refused. I said, ‘You are lying. You have no right to my phone or my pouch.’
“The next thing, I got a heavy slap close to my eye. As I’m talking to you, my eye is swollen. Then they started hitting me repeatedly—with guns and batons—accusing me of being a criminal and saying I must follow them to the station.
“I said, ‘I’m not going anywhere. You have no right to my phone.’”
“Finally, one elderly policeman came and asked me calmly to give him the phone. Out of respect, since he was old enough to be my father, I handed it to him. But then I saw him taking the phone away, so I ran after him and grabbed it back, saying, ‘You’re not going to open my pouch for everyone to see. You can’t take my phone away,’” Atayegbare told SaharaReporters.
He said that at that point, he went online and started recording what was happening.
Atayegbare noted that he told his in-laws to record everything. Two other passengers in the vehicle also took videos.
‘Shoot His Leg’
Before long, the police entered the vehicle and started hitting everyone and dragging people out, while the driver tried to explain that he had a soldier relative and didn’t like the way things were going.
“I told them they were not allowed to check my phone. I told them that because of what they had done, I could no longer give them the phone,” he said.
“Before I knew it, one of them hit my left wrist with a big baton. The next thing, he started dragging me.
“I was struggling with them as they tried to force me into their vehicle. While they were pushing me, the man used the baton to hit my leg.
“Another officer was shouting, ‘Shoot him!’ Then the police officer cocked his gun and fired a shot — not at me directly, but into the air, close to where I was.”
“He didn’t even lower the gun, so I thought maybe they really intended to shoot me. The officer then said again, ‘Shoot his leg,’” he explained.
Atayegbare said, “I quickly moved my right leg away. The way I moved it, the bullet didn’t hit me, but it tore my new Cross shoes that I was wearing.
“My in-law was forced into the vehicle first. One officer was sitting on the left-hand side, behind the driver. The driver was in the front, and another officer was seated on the passenger side. There were already two officers inside when we were pushed in. My in-law sat in the middle while another officer began hitting me with the baton, using the door to trap my leg.
“They hit my right leg until it was bleeding, while I kept telling them, ‘Allow me to put my leg inside properly.’ It’s not like I refused; you’re the ones blocking me.
“They hit my hand, took my phone, and also took my in-law’s phone. That was when the video we were recording got messed up.
“Next, the officer in the passenger seat started holding my private parts while the driver kept poking me with a toothpick, threatening me, saying, ‘You will see today. Once we get to the station, you are finished.’”
Atayegbare said he was shocked and kept shouting, “You’re holding my private parts! You’re holding my private parts!”
He stated, “The one sitting closest to me even bit my hand. I shouted, “You’re biting me! You’re biting me!”
“The headphones I was using to make the video were pulled off my neck and destroyed. That was when I became very angry and said, ‘So this is what you people think you can do? This is how far you can go?’
“Eventually, they drove me and my in-law to their station, leaving my sister behind at the park where other officers were reportedly beating her.
“When we got to the station, I raised my voice, insisting they had no right to search my phone.
“The DPO arrived shortly after and asked, ‘What is happening?’ I told him to tell his men to leave me alone. Instead, one officer said he would ‘deal with me today,’ claiming I had torn his uniform during the struggle.”
Atayegbare told Reporters that the DPO asked if it was true. He explained that during the struggle, they beat him while he was only trying to defend himself.
He said an officer tried to hit him with a baton, but the DPO told the officer to leave him alone. Thereafter, they told Atayegbare to sit at the back of the counter.
He said, “I sat there and called my in-law, who collected our phones. The DPO told him to delete all the videos he had on his phone.
“The police then brought in the boy and girl who had also been beaten. They were the ones recording the incident. The officers forced them to delete all the videos from their phones as well.
“I remained seated for a long time while my relatives kept calling me from the village, asking where I was. I finally managed to pick up and told my in-law to inform them that I was being held by the police for no crime committed.”
When asked why he did not send the videos to friends and relatives as a backup and reference, he said, “The whole incident happened so suddenly. I was simply recording when they attacked me. I wasn’t even live-streaming. If I had gone live, people would have seen everything as it happened.
“Later, I realised I couldn’t keep recording, so I asked my in-law to make a video.
“When they were deleting the videos, the DPO himself took my in-law’s phone. He deleted the videos from the gallery, Facebook, TikTok, and even the trash folder. He checked everything himself.
“I told him, ‘If you were me, you would have locked me up here.’ But my in-law advised me to stop arguing, saying they had no right but that I should just comply so I could leave and attend the marriage ceremony we had planned for.
“So, I apologized to the DPO—not because I was guilty, but because I didn’t want any more trouble.
“After that, they told me to go back to the counter. While I was there, they brought in another case involving someone accused of stealing a tire ring from a workshop. The vigilantes who brought the suspect were also there.”
“Then they asked my in-law and me to come inside, but later told us to stay in the reception area instead.
“While we were standing there, a loud gunshot suddenly went off. The vigilante’s gun had discharged accidentally,” he told Reporters.
Atayegbare said, “My injured leg, which was already bleeding, got covered with sand and stones because of the blast. Thankfully, the gun was facing sideways, or the situation could have been worse.
“One female police officer began crying, saying she could have died from the accidental shot. The vigilante who fired the shot was working with the police.”
Atayegbare said he told his in-law he was unwell and struggling to breathe.
He said a police officer asked him to write a statement but barred him from mentioning the beating or forced video deletion, insisting he was a suspect, not a complainant.
Feeling faint, he begged a female officer for water, but she demanded money before helping.
Alleged N180,000 Extortion
However, some activists later arrived, assuring him the police had no right to seize his phone. Despite this, officers demanded huge sums, accusing him of breaking a screen guard, forcing him to pay ₦5,000.
“As we were leaving, my in-law told me they had actually spent N180,000 there,” Atayegbare said.
Efforts to contact the Delta State Police Command spokesperson, Bright Edafe, were unsuccessful as he did not respond to calls or a message sent to him.
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