An engineer and property expert, Roselyne Davidson, has narrated how the police in Nigeria “abducted” her teenage son just out of secondary school and held him hostage until the cops extorted N40,000 from the family for the release of the boy.

Ms Davidson stated that this unsavoury encounter happened in 2018 in Lagos while working as a food supplier.

The England-based woman disclosed this on Sunday to emphasise British Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch’s encounter with corrupt police officers in Nigeria.

“I used to run a kitchen in Yesufu Abiodun, Oniru, where I supplied food to banks and offices in Victoria Island, Lagos. My 15-year-old son often helped with deliveries, as he had just completed his WAEC exams in 2018. On one particular day, we had a delivery close to our house. Since it was nearby, he went without the driver, carrying the food and our POS machine.

“Tragically, the Nigerian police abducted him, confiscated his phone, and took him to the anti-cultism unit in Gbagada. We searched everywhere in Victoria Island, unaware that he had been taken so far away. Eventually, they allowed him to call me, and his terrified voice broke me: ‘Mummy, are you on your way? I’m so scared’,” Ms Davidson narrated.

Ms Davidson said she was traumatised when she saw the condition of her teenage son at a police station in Gbagada.

“I saw my son—half-naked and sitting on the ground with over 100 others outside the station. I collapsed in tears. My husband, who is British, demanded to see the DPO and asked him directly: ‘What offence are you charging my son with?’ The boy hadn’t been allowed to explain himself, yet the food and POS machine were right there at the station.

“The DPO’s response? ‘Because he dyed his hair’. That was it. Nothing more. In the end, we were forced to pay for his release. This incident was a turning point for my husband, who decided that we couldn’t continue living in Nigeria.”

Then pregnant, Ms Davidson said the trauma led her into premature labour.

“At the time of this ordeal, I was seven months pregnant, and the trauma of the experience caused me to go into premature labour, resulting in an emergency C-section.

“My son’s only ‘crime’ was being a hardworking boy, helping with his parents’ legitimate business—a business that provided employment for Nigerians. For my husband, a white British man, to witness such injustice firsthand was a harrowing experience,” said Ms Davidson.

She added, “Many of us have bitter, painful stories about the Nigerian system. Yet when we speak out and tell the truth, we are accused of defamation or subjected to cyberbullying. It’s truly heartbreaking. I personally say that Kemi should be left alone. She is saying exactly what she experienced, and if I’m asked anywhere in the world the same question, I will narrate my ordeal, so will every member of my family!”

Ms Davidson told Peoples Gazette that several years after her family’s harrowing experience in the hands of Nigerian police, she was haunted by the callousness and criminal conduct of the Lagos cops.

“We haven’t recovered from the trauma; it’s not something we can forget. Every day, I apologise to my son for not being able to protect him,” she stated. “My husband took this pain to his grave, and one of his last wishes was for me to take our children away from Nigeria.”

“I don’t have any information on that incident that happened six years ago. I do not,” Benjamin Hundeyin, spokesman for the police in Lagos, told The Gazette following an inquiry to confirm the allegations.