Some men of the Lagos State Police Command have been accused of conspiring with hoodlums to extort motorists at the Berger and Oshodi areas of the state.
The motorists alleged that hoodlums in the areas were empowered by the police to ask commercial drivers for N300.
On the punishment that comes with defaulting, the commercial alleged that the police officers would make it difficult for them to transport passengers in the park.
Speaking on the incident, an affected motorist, Tolulope, claimed the size of the car of a driver determines the amount of money the policemen at the park extort from him.
He said, “This is how they disturb us daily. They collect salary but I have to hustle on mine daily but still, they make life very uncomfortable for me. Here we pay N300 for loading. In a day, we pay close to N500 or even more daily.
“It depends on the kind of bus you are driving. For me, I drive a shuttle bus, so the money I will pay may differ from what all those big buses pay. They keep sending all these boys to collect money from us because they don’t want people to see them collecting the money on uniforms.”
READ ALSO: Septuagenarian Attempts To Rape 25-year-old Woman
Also, Rufai, another commercial driver, revealed that he pays policemen N700 daily as bribe to enable work in the park in peace.
Rufai said, “They have agents that collect money from us daily. The Army, police, and LASTMA have their agents. They call them “aja dog”. For police, we pay N300 in the morning if we are loading from Obalende and at night, we pay N400 which sums it up to a total of N700 in a day.
“This is one of the major reasons why we decided to add money on transportation because aside from the fact that the price of fuel has increased, we also have to settle all these agencies on the road and sometimes, it becomes unbearable.
“If we decide not to give them, I am very sure they will make life unbearable for us. If we want to carry passengers at a particular bus stop, they will not allow us, instead, they will keep hitting our buses with their rod. But, if we pay them their daily dues, they will allow us to carry passengers anywhere we want to.”
All efforts to get the reaction of the state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, proved abortive as his phone rang out on Monday several times and messages sent were yet to be responded to as of the time of filing this report.