A lady is currently in a serious problem after buying a recharge card from the roadside in Osun State and was eventually arrested by policemen because the card she bought was among those that were recently stolen by robbers from a bulk recharge cards seller.
The lady has therefore cried to the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, to save her as she was picked again on Tuesday and detained three months after her first arrest in February
The lady, who gave her name on her Twitter as Bukola Omolaoye with the Twitter handle @BOmolaoye, on Thursday, May 19, gave graphic details of what she went through and her plight was responded to by the Force PRO on Thursday night.
According to her series of tweets: "Just because I am an ordinary Nigerian with nobody at the top, either does my family have deep pockets, the Nigerian Police are trying to frame me for what I knew nothing about, how does this occur?
"Around February this year which was on the 6th of February, I recharged an airtime worth N400 which i purchased from a roadside vendor
After two weeks, I received a message on my WhatsApp, the person claimed to be a student doing project and making research for his project.
"He said he has some few questions to ask me. i agreed. After so many pleas from him, I decided we meet at an open place, unknown to me he was a policeman. We met as agreed and the policeman explained how a bulk card seller was robbed of airtime worth N1 million.
"Ater so many interrogations, they asked to know my house which I accepted because I know so well I was just a final consumer who purchased cards like every other citizen. I am not a card vendor and I don’t buy cards in bulk to sell, so I brought them to my house,
"They searched everywhere and when they couldn’t find anything incriminating, they left. I was so surprised with the whole scenario because I don’t know when it became forbidden to buy a card from a roadside vendor.
"I work at @ifegroundresort, Ile ife and that's where I have been earning salary to take care of my daughter, my siblings and parents. The bottom line is, the police claimed that the voucher I bought with my own money on the 6th of February was a stolen card, and here I am, I am just a final consumer, I am not a card retailer neither do I sell card in bulk!
"So, I can never get to know that it was stolen.
Precisely after three months, which happened to be on Tuesday, 17th of May, the police came to arrest me and on that day, i was locked up in the cell, I slept in the cell, my friends and family were panicking, even my five-year-old child was crying as if she knew what I'm going through.
"Nigerians, please I want you to come to my aid because they know I have nobody. They knew so well that I have nothing. Even the prosecutors asked them to let me be, that I am not the culprit here but the DPO insisted.
"To be precise, the DPO of Oke Otubu Police Station, Modakeke, Ile Ife, Osun State, said they should lock me up and everybody that came for me. He knew so well I have nobody and he was trying to use his power on me.
"Are they telling me that we shouldn't buy card again? Please I am at crossroad, I need help, Nigerians please help me.
"Before now I didn’t have a twitter account, so I have to hurriedly open one because these days, Twitter is the hope of a common Nigerian that has only God. I was bailed yesterday which wasn’t free and today, I was told to report back again."
Her plight got the attention of the Force PRO, Muyiwa Adejobi, who wrote about the situation.
According to his tweets: "Yes. The police who picked you up have not done anything wrong.
Even if u buy a card worth just N10 and you are linked to that crime, you will be arrested.
"They will investigate you and make sure you are just an innocent buyer, then they may wish to release you, or charge you if they notice what we call guilty knowledge in your case or they use you in court as a prosecution witness.
"Whosoever is found in possession of a stolen item shall be charged for Receiving Stolen Goods. It's a criminal offence, it's none of the police business whether you knew about the operation that led to the robbery of the items or not. So the police will need to carry out investigation to ascertain your level of involvement.
"As you are, you are a suspect as provided for in our law. Any lawyer can testify to this. We need to understand our laws so that we don't always have wrong perception about our operations.
You are sounding as if the police have committed a taboo. Now the only issue is that, they can not take bail money from you, or did they?"