A member of the National Youth Service Corps who goes by the name Gift has accused some Mushin Local Government Area officials in Lagos State of extortion for the sum of N5,000.
The incident, according to pharmacist Gift, occurred on Thursday while she was leaving her Community Development Service duty in the Oshodi Isolo region.
Gift told reporters in an interview on Saturday that she had stopped at the Mushin LG’s Area Office, which is housed in the Itire Ikate Local Council Development Area, for her car inspection when she was taken advantage of by the officials.
I visited the VIO office in the Cele district of Mushin, as the woman remarked. I had no idea where I was. In purple uniforms, I noticed some individuals and Lagos State Traffic Management Authority employees. I approached them in my car to inquire about directions.When one of the men in the purple uniforms arrived, I told him where I was heading when he inquired. He then dispatched a woman among them to guide me there. When we arrived at the location, the woman got into my car and instructed me where to park. She simply urged me to enter the office even though I had not seen any VIO representatives.
“When I walked into the office, I told a staff member that I had come for my vehicle inspection. I was informed I was acting like I didn’t know what I had done wrong. They threatened to deflate my tires until I turned over my car key. Although they claimed I went one way, I disagreed.
Gift observed that the woman she was traveling with abruptly fled the area. She revealed that she was first required to pay a fine of N60,000 for the offense.
Later, I discovered that the VIO office is located on the same grounds. They identified themselves as members of the task force. To demonstrate that I didn’t have enough money to cover their request, I showed them my bank account. One of them urged me to get in touch with my spouse and other people so they could send me money.
They planned to impounded my automobile, but I just had N7,000 in my account. They advised me to visit a bank and withdraw the funds there. I left for the bank and returned. The woman there ultimately snatched N5,000 from me.
I was there from 1 to 5 o’clock. I found that they extort a lot of individuals in that way. They didn’t provide a receipt, she continued.
The Mushin Area Office’s Head of Admin, Sogo Osikoya, responded when he was contacted on Sunday, saying, “You can ask the person to get in touch and I will investigate.” We exhort people to report injustice and refuse to accept it. She should let me know if she can identify the person who stole the money so I can look into it. It is not something we would want to promote, extortion. A society without laws is not beneficial to any of us.