BREAKING: Nigerian Police Move To Arraign 22-Year-Old Student Arrested In Ogun Over Mother's Debt Without Family’s Knowledge

The Nigerian police have moved to arraign 22-year-old student, Jeffrey Boniface, who was arrested in Akute, Ogun State, over a debt allegedly owed by his mother, without informing his family.

Boniface, a student of Miva University, was arrested on Saturday, April 26, 2025, by two armed officers in plain clothes led by ASP John Agbaji. The officers had initially surrounded the house of Mrs. Armstrong Angel Mayo, who was accused of defaulting on a business transaction.

According to a source close to the family, the officers confronted Boniface when he stepped out to buy a recharge card in the neighbourhood. When he demanded to see an arrest warrant, the officers attacked him.

“When the officers confronted Jeffrey Boniface, the son of Mrs Mayo who had come out to buy recharge card in his neighbourhood, he requested an arrest warrant, which angered the officers who immediately attacked him. Jeffrey (Boniface) resisted arrest on the grounds that the officers were in plain clothes and refused to identify themselves,” the source said.

“The police officers also denied Jeffrey’s request to inform his parents or relatives of his arrest. The officers eventually overpowered him and transported him to their station, where he was placed in a cell with suspected criminals,” the source added.

Since his arrest, Boniface has been denied access to family members, a glaring violation of his fundamental rights.

“He is presently being detained at the Magistrate's Court at Tinubu, Lagos. The police want to arraign him and I am making efforts as his lawyer to file a bail application. But my problem now is the surety. I know they will want us to get a surety that will stand as a guarantor for his freedom,” his lawyer told SaharaReporters during a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Boniface recounted his ordeal, stating that the police did not inform his family before taking him to court and did not release his phone to call them.

“They did not inform my family before taking me to court. They did not even release my phone to call them and my phone is with the IPO. They said I fought the police and that is not why they even arrested me. They arrested me due to the fact that based on the transaction that the complainant and my mum had, my mum was paying N50,000 per month. The complainant said I am the one that sent him a voice note. Meanwhile, the police had put me in a cell already. When they analysed the voice note, they found out that it was not me (who sent the voice note). So they looked for another way to pin me down. They now said that I fought the police,” he said.

“All I did was I just stood my ground that I was not going anywhere. That is all I did when they wanted to arrest me. I told the policeman to give me a reason for my arrest but they did not give me a reason.

“At that time, my mum was in the house and I was at a POS centre. They said that I was obstructing the police from arresting my mum. I was at the POS centre and my mum was at home. Why didn’t they go to the house to pick her up? It is because they know that they did not have enough claims.

“The complainant was saying he was 100% percent sure that he heard my voice in the voice note. So they started playing the voice note and it did not work out like they thought. So they are looking for another way to hold me down."

“The complainant received it from my mum, the guy who spoke in it claimed to be a banker, and the complainant said that the voice note was a scam. That it was a fraud. That it was me who claimed to be the banker. So when they played the voice, I asked the man, 'Does this sound like me?' So when they realised it was not me, they used another thing to pin me down,” he added.