The Lagos State Police Command has confirmed that officers implicated in the alleged unlawful detention and extortion of a serving National Youth Service Corps member have been identified and are currently under internal investigation.
Command spokesperson SP Abimbola Adebisi announced on Monday via her verified X account that two officers have been formally queried, with one already defaulted in line with the command’s disciplinary procedures. She said the corps member, who goes by the handle @devcharlezen, had visited the command in person and provided information that helped move the review forward — earning him a public commendation for his candour.
Three Hours of Alleged Harassment on the Road to Epe
According to the corps member, identified as Devcharlezen, the ordeal began around 10 a.m. on Saturday while he was travelling from Ikeja to Epe. Officers from Ladegboye Police Station in Ikorodu reportedly flagged down his vehicle and, after confirming his documents were in order, began questioning him about his tribe, state of origin and what he was doing in Lagos.
When he presented his NYSC identification card, the officers allegedly dismissed it as fake and demanded he log into the NYSC portal on his phone to verify it. An officer then seized the device and — without his consent — began scrolling through his private messages. A conversation with a colleague was enough for the officers to accuse him of internet fraud on the spot.
What followed, he alleged, was nearly three hours of being driven around Lagos in a police vehicle while officers repeatedly pressured him to confess to crimes he denied committing. At one point, an officer allegedly demanded $1,000 from his cryptocurrency account and threatened to hand him over to the EFCC. When he called the bluff and agreed to be taken there, the officers reportedly refused and kept driving.
Girlfriend Jumps From Moving Car
The incident took a more alarming turn when Devcharlezen alleged that his girlfriend, who had been placed in his car with a separate officer, jumped from the moving vehicle out of fear and sustained bruises in the process. His phone was confiscated, her phone was also seized, and his car was later returned with scratches and a mechanical fault that he said were not there before.
At the station, officers interrogated him for roughly two hours, going as far as contacting his colleague and the chief executive of a tech application he was developing. The inquiry centred on shared ATM card details found in his messages, which he explained were being used for app debugging — a clarification the officers eventually accepted before releasing him.
Before he left, he alleged that an officer tore his NYSC identity card and discarded his NYSC cap. He also claimed officers attempted to pressure him into signing a statement indicating the matter had been resolved — a request he flatly refused.
Describing the entire episode as traumatic and deeply humiliating, Devcharlezen maintained that no Nigerian citizen should be subjected to such treatment at the hands of those sworn to protect them.
