An industrialist, Damilola Babalola, who sued two Police officers, Inspector Lateef Adekunle and Sergeant Shedrack Nwadike, has explained that she took the action to free herself from constant harassment.
Punch reports that the 33-year-old businesswoman had sued the officers at the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja for allegedly assaulting and extorting money from her.
Other respondents are the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, one Pastor Olukayode Johnson and Mr. Sunday Enyiukwu.
PUNCH Metro also learnt that the Ogun State indigene had a business transaction with Enyiukwu that went south, which led to the latter reporting her at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Annex, Alagbon, Lagos.
It was gathered that Enyiukwu sold a 150 KVA generator to Babalola for N3.2m, while the latter made an initial payment of N1.3m.
According to Babalola, the generator was delivered to her factory but it did not work, while all efforts to make Enyiukwu replace it or return her money proved abortive.
Babalola, who noted that she went to the FCID to respond to the petition, said her ordeal in the hands of the officers was unsavoury.
She said, “In November 2018, I got an invitation from the FCID, Alagbon, to respond to a petition and I felt that I should go there to explain my own side of the story, but when I got there on November 7, 2018, I was shocked by what I saw.
“I was accused of stealing a generator and threatening the seller, and I asked them where all that came from and they said Enyiukwu said that I leased the generator for N50,000 per day and that the money I paid him expired within 26 days and I didn’t want to release his generator.
“They asked for my receipt and I told them that he did not give me one because whenever I asked him, he was always giving one excuse or the other, and the officers said that meant that the generator was leased out and I said if that was the case, he should provide the lease agreement; but instead, I was harassed; the Police recorded a video of me and locked me up.
“I was asked if I was going to pay the balance and when I realised that if I did not agree to pay the balance, they would not let me go, I had to agree to a payment plan and pledged that whatever I was able to come up with in December, I would bring it; but before I was released, N70,000 was collected from me as bail from the N200,000 they asked for.
“I was unable to raise any money in December and I called Inspector Adekunle to tell him that I was unable to come up with any money, but he harassed me and threatened that I was going to spend Christmas in detention if I didn’t transfer money to him, so I had to look for N20,000 and send to him.
“On January 22, 2019, I was able to come up with N200,000 and I took it to their office and when I got there, the money was counted in my and Enyiukwu’s presence and I was given a piece of paper to write down how I was going to pay the balance and my phone was collected from me and they said since I would be paying in tranches, they had decided that the generator should be collected from me.”
She stated that she took the policemen to her colleague’s factory on Acme Road, Ogba, Lagos, for her to serve as a witness.
Babalola had filed a motion on notice numbered ID/8016MFHR/19 before Justice Yetunde Pinheiro that the officers made her pay for bail before she could regain her freedom.
She is praying the court to declare her arrest on November 8, 2018 and January 22, 2019, as illegal, unlawful and violation of her personal liberty as guaranteed and preserved by sections 33, 34 and 35 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Meanwhile, the matter has been adjourned till October 4.