This incident took place around december last year around Ikotun Egbe when i was visiting a friend. Well,
there i was, on a saturday morning going to visit a friend and i took my lappy along just for the fun of it.
And the next thing i knew was that a hungry-looking guy approached me from the back asking what was
in my laptop, after looking him up and down, he now said he was a policeman and produced something that
looked like a very old and photocopied ID card.
While i was still thinking of what to make of that, another guy came from the other other side and asked me
to go and enter one "danfo" vehicle. They were both in plain's clothes, and we were in a very busy place.

@that point, i was thinking they were probably thieves and i was already planning to teach them a lesson
in martial arts (God saved me). Then i stylishly called my friend while they were temporarily distracted.

Meanwhile i asked them why i should go to the danfo, and they said they had to take me to a station to search
my laptop if i was a 419. And i asked them if this was a standard procedure now in the policeforce that if someone
carries a laptop, then, that person must go to the policestation by force. I used all sort of delaying tactics, then
the arresting officer told his boys to round me up. By now, alot of people have gathered and were watching, so i was
sure they were most likely police. I used all sort of delaying tactics, i even emptied my laptop bag and all on the roadside
and asked them to see what i was carrying, that instead of station, letz settle it then = then the arresting officer said
"he was not a roadside police", in short, that my friend's father happens to be a high ranked policeman, by the time they
got there, as in my friend and his father, the policemen had to calm down, and let me go.

The funny thing was that, they never asked to see my ID card(they said they were not interested) or even receipt. I was later informed that this was how the police worked in some areas. So now i am thinking, if i leave my house in the morning, and i am on my way to work, and carry
my office laptop. and then, i can get arrested as a suspect and whisked to the policestation or what?

This is the why some people call nigeria a jungle. You asked a very good question. Many people have been arrested while going to work with their laptop just like that. This thing have been going on for a very long time. How can police in a normal society just arrest someone just because they are carrying a laptop?

*yawn* go pitch ur tent in the sexuality section. 'cos some1 opened a thread about being arrested wearing a police inscribed t-shirt, every1 wants to get noticed, na2day? lol

nellaluv:

*yawn* go pitch your tent in the sexuality section. 'cos some1 opened a thread about being arrested wearing a police inscribed t-shirt, every1 wants to get noticed, na2day? lol

I don't think that is the case at all. When i first heard about this thing about six months ago, i was shocked. And its surprising to me that most people have not been talking about it. It seems to be more rampant in some states though. I knew about it when i sent my friend some laptops to sell. He said that benin city is a no go area that once the police spot you with a laptop, you will be arrested instantly. He said Port Harcourt is cool. But i didn't know it happens in lagos too. I guess if you are found with a laptop and you have a car or dress responsibly, you will not be arrested because you don't fit the yahoo boys profile.

Ehoi:

I don't think that is the case at all. When i first heard about this thing about six months ago, i was shocked. And its surprising to me that most people have not been talking about it. It seems to be more rampant in some states though. I knew about it when i sent my friend some laptops to sell. He said that benin city is a no go area that once the police spot you with a laptop, you will be arrested instantly. He said Port Harcourt is cool. But i didn't know it happens in lagos too. I guess if you are found with a laptop and you have a car or dress responsibly, you will not be arrested because you don't fit the yahoo boys profile.

it seems u're not in Nigeria, this has been going on for a long time now, even in Lagos. Just make sure u're with your receipts whenever u want to carry any electronics outside your gate, even if it's just a portable DVD or mp3 player, lol.

Is It Illegal To Carry A Laptop? I Was Arrested For Carrying One

Oh before you dont know? It is every big offence in Nigeria to cary laptop dey waka for street.
Police never get common desktop for his house you dey carry laptop of 50 to 100k dey waka for street, say who born you?

May be you didn't dress well, you dressed like Yahoo yahoo.

Speechless

nellaluv:

*yawn* go pitch your tent in the sexuality section. 'cos some1 opened a thread about being arrested wearing a police inscribed t-shirt, every1 wants to get noticed, na2day? lol

What are you trying to say? How is he trying to get noticed? Someone that had being on the forum since 2007 and has over 4000 posts?

His contribution on NL is wonderful, check the Webmaster section and see for yourself.

May I suggest this tried and tested dimplomatic approach, for anyone found guilty of being in possession, or under the influence of a laptop computer in Nigeria.

1. Keep calm and listen to the charge you are facing.  It will vary from officer to officer, since it will be made up on the spot.

2. As soon as you can get a word in edgeways, tell the arresting officer that you will be prepared to entrust him with a duplicate or advanced payment of your Laptop Registration Fee, even though you have already paid for the current month at the Protocol Licensing Authority.  As he struggles to figure out if you are serious or not, ask him what he could consider a fair price for his delivering your payment to the relevant office.

3. Steering him gently away from the earshot of others, suddenly pretend to know the arresting officer, and shake his hand vigorously, while asking after the health of his wives and children.  As you hand him a small stack of currency notes, thank him profusely for taking the time out of his busy schedule to help you make your laptop permit payment, and tell him how relieved you are to have stumbled into a friend who could be trusted to handle that important paperwork.

4. Observe in amusement how other laptop-men get worked over and hauled in by enraged gunmen in uniform, simply for trying ANY other approach besides the above three-step MODALITY.

My dear i feel u i have been in that unique situation, police men don`t ask for IDs they ask u to produce a receipt for the laptop, which is not done anywhere a laptop is a consumable its like telling someone to produce a receipt for their phones. All they are after is milking you of hard earned cash, if u know any of their ogas then u have no problem, if not u re on ur own. Dumb police officers and men we have. it was fun sha seeing police men who previously were shouting now begging after their boss was called.

@zken

I was once stop and questions by the police for moving with my old (2002 Series) laptop by 10pm

Right there at my sight, a guy was arrested and believe lock up in a cell that night for the same purpose

At this rate, the Nigerian police will soon start asking people to produce receipts for body parts eg. where is the receipt for the head on top of your neck, or the balls inside your trousers or the mouth attached to your head.
Very soon,

Even though the rate of laptop snatching in Nigeria is high, I am yet to hear that the police recovered anybody's laptop before, ever.

Jakumo:

May I suggest this tried and tested dimplomatic approach, for anyone found guilty of being in possession, or under the influence of a laptop computer in Nigeria.

1. Keep calm and listen to the charge you are facing.  It will vary from officer to officer, since it will be made up on the spot.

2. As soon as you can get a word in edgeways, tell the arresting officer that you will be prepared to entrust him with a duplicate or advanced payment of your Laptop Registration Fee, even though you have already paid for the current month at the Protocol Licensing Authority.  As he struggles to figure out if you are serious or not, ask him what he could consider a fair price for his delivering your payment to the relevant office.

3. Steering him gently away from the earshot of others, suddenly pretend to know the arresting officer, and shake his hand vigorously, while asking after the health of his wives and children.  As you hand him a small stack of currency notes, thank him profusely for taking the time out of his busy schedule to help you make your laptop permit payment, and tell him how relieved you are to have stumbled into a friend who could be trusted to handle that important paperwork.

4. Observe in amusement how other laptop-men get worked over and hauled in by enraged gunmen in uniform, simply for trying ANY other approach besides the above three-step MODALITY.

guy, u're very funny. E b like say u b yahoo-guy, d way u take arrange ur format

When i was a student in the uni, i was coming home on vacation and our vehicle was searched by the police. In my bag, they found my old electric iron and demanded I produced the receipt. After a long argument, i was given a hit with the batton on my bottom and asked to go. That's a country we are in bro.

Another reason why a Nigerian in Diaspora would prefer to stay in their adopted country

The Police arrested me of recent at Ikeja asking me to give them 3,000 naira or travel back to Iganmu to bring the receipt of the laptop.

I gave them knowing that even after spending rime and money travelling back to get the reciept, they will still demand money for the collection of the laptop.

The country is at this level of corruption courtesy of the police.

I so much hate anybody on black and black.

and there you guys are complaining! Heard a dude was arrested for possesion of a Nokia 3310,,,,the crime read "possesion of a dangerous weapon without a licence".,,,,,hehehehe
Uncle Jakumo, I think your thorough process could actually assist all laptop users in avoiding being unusually embarassed by these well meaning law enforcement officers!

i have heard quite a few people go through the same thing.  the nigerian pirates police will do anything for a bribe to catch a criminal

nellaluv:

*yawn* go pitch your tent in the sexuality section. 'cos some1 opened a thread about being arrested wearing a police inscribed t-shirt, every1 wants to get noticed, na2day? lol

bandely:

What are you trying to say? How is he trying to get noticed? Someone that had being on the forum since 2007 and has over 4000 posts?

His contribution on NL is wonderful, check the Webmaster section and see for yourself.

@ nellaluv, I also acknowledge posters contributions to the education of members at the web section, I think u hit the wrong guy, may be u don't know (that's not a crime),
and now that u know, I'm sure u will do what decent ladies do in this kind of circumstance, politely apologize, after all we all know u are a decent lady too with panache      

Man till tomorrow as long as the Nigeria Police still exist, carrying laptop in public is still and will be illegal. Cos the trught is that about 80% of Nigerian police are illiterates.

@dhtml
Its not illegal to carry a laptop. There is nothing in the constitution or law that states its illegal.
All those things that happened is just a way for the police to extort money or cause unnecessary embarrassment to the individual.

Same stuff happened to me last October near the computer village in Lagos. I was stopped by a uniformed policeman and  then told to get into a bus parked by the corner. I was to told to produce some form of identification which I promptly did (well I presented my drivers license). Then I was told to hand over my cellphones so they could see who I called recently( crazy I know). That was when things got dramatic because I refused to handover my phones and so a struggle ensued. Later on I went with the cops to the police station in their blasted danfo because by then alot more so-called policemen had come around. There we continued the struggle for my phone. While they were all shouting I managed to get a call through( on speaker) to another policeman, a higher ranking one who was a a friend of my friend (I think he is a DPR or something like that). He was the one who told the other policemen to let me go and thats how I got off without paying a dime. It was a crazy experience indeed

Let me give you a strange advise. I was arrested once for carrying a laptop without a receipt. This was in mushin. I was taken to a police station and asked to write a statement that i forgot the receipt and will retrieve it within 24hrs of consider the laptop seized.

I quickly rushed to a friend at lawanson who sold electronics and asked him to write a receipt for a second-hand laptop (my first mistake) and give to me. He did, I squeezed it a bit and rubbed some dirt on it. (thinking i was smart) when i got back to the station, they asked for the original receipt not a second hand one. I tried to explain that it was shipped to Nigeria among other stuff at Alaba.
My second crime (Purchasing contraband goods). They promptly locked me up in a cell and trashed my first statement asking me to write a new one stating that i bought contraband or i will face charges in court. At this stage i could not imagine how my simple day in a taxi cab going through a checkpoint in mushin,landed me in a cell charged with smuggling contraband.  

Long story short, I paid N13,000 (no receipt) got my laptop and was advised by some other policeman to always carry a Letter of Authorization from a Company dated, signed and stamped.

So what I have done is to print out authorization letters from January to December stating that the laptop belongs to the company and i am working from home. signed, dated and stamped.

This might be the only way out for you. should they call the company, give them a name of a colleague to vouch for you.

otherwise you will be transferred to customs and then court and then Kirikiri to be shot by firing squad.  

Rhea:

At this rate, the Nigerian police will soon start asking people to produce receipts for body parts eg. where is the receipt for the head on top of your neck, or the balls inside your trousers or the mouth attached to your head.
Very soon,

Even though the rate of laptop snatching in Nigeria is high, I am yet to hear that the police recovered anybody's laptop before, ever.

I would love to witness the ear where u have to carry receipts for your body parts. . Probably when you don't have the receipt, they may end up seizing the illegal part. Hahahaha.

Make una leave police ooo. Carrying laptop without being well dressed and a company ID card is a capital crime in police law. Believe me!

Nigeria police, na work wey dey no send them den dey do. Thats the country we are in, lawless country

This trend is rampant in Computer Village. And the officers won't let you go till you drop between N500 and N2000

i tink my own experience was even acted by mature,enlightened officers.the guy looks clean and wel dressed.the no. of his jeep reads SPY.he accosted me at agidingbi.told me in good english that they are on the look out for a compass bla bla bla.then asked wat i have in my bag.i asked for his ids and showed him mine.he just told me "u journalist,wats happenning in the polity today".we shook hands and parted ways.sure he would have made a mountain out of it but for my ID.

ye, it has happened to me severerly when i was in the country, cos as a forex trader, my laptop is alwys glued to me. but trust, they always regret it, cos i always teach them the lessons of their life after will got to the station, the real me is always known in ikeja