ALagos State resident, Mutyhullahi Adebayo, has lamented how an officer of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), identified as Ibrahim A. T. on Saturday extorted the sum of N40,000 from him after demanding the sum of N200,000 for no justifiable reason.
Narrating his ordeal to SaharaReporters, Adebayo explained that at about 4.35p.m on Saturday, he was driving on Oba Akran Avenue with his fuel gauge on red because he was not able to get fuel in about three filling stations he visited to buy fuel.
“I was panicking that the vehicle would stop abruptly in the middle of the road and made a U-turn beside Guinness to go and get fuel at Mobil Filling Station, Pronto when Korope (Keke Napep) blocked me and one uniformed LASTMA officer and other two men without uniform rushed me.
“It looked like a robbery scene. Car key was collected from me in a jiffy. In my perplexed state I managed to get the name tag of the officer and photos of his subordinates.
“Few minutes later, the officer, Ibrahim, asked me to go to Agege Pen Cinema and ask for Mr. Ajao. I did. He wasn’t in. I saw my vehicle where it was parked among various brands of cars. My mind got a temporary relief.”
Adebayo said that haggling started when the LASTMA officer in uniform, Ibrahim employed a fear strategy, threatening him with court appearance and eventual forfeiture of his vehicle to the state government.
“Officer Ibrahim A. T. demanded N200,000. I showed him N6,315 bank balance in my only account. I borrowed to pay the satanic officer after his subordinate refused to collect the cursed money.”
He said that had to borrow and when he eventually saw Ajao, he asked him to go to another PoS agent which he did and “I got N50,000 there with a charge of N1000.
“As I was coming from the PoS agent, Mr. Ajao saw me cursing the money. He pleaded with me to change my mind. I refused. He went to his superior. He came back to inform me that he had pleaded with him to reduce it to N40,000. At about 9.36p.m, I paid N40,000 to officer Ibrahim A T.”