The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has detained four police officers accused of extorting N53,000 from the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr Musa Aliyu (SAN), during an unauthorised stop-and-search operation in Abuja.
The FCT Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Sanusi, disclosed this on Monday while addressing journalists in Abuja, describing the officers involved as criminals who had no justification for wearing the police uniform.
According to Sanusi, the officers abandoned their official duty locations and converged around the Banex area of Wuse, where they allegedly mounted an illegal checkpoint and extorted money from the ICPC chairman without knowing his identity.
He said the officers forced Aliyu to withdraw N53,000 through a Point of Sale (POS) operator, made him pay the transaction charges, and later shared the proceeds among themselves.
“I must say here too that we have about four policemen in custody as we speak who successfully extorted somebody of high importance, unknown to them that this person is a highly placed person in society. In clear terms, they extorted the Chairman of the ICPC.
“They extorted him of N53,000. They took him to a POS, he withdrew the money, paid the charges and they shared the money among themselves,” Sanusi said.
The police commissioner said investigations showed that the officers had formed a criminal syndicate after leaving their respective divisions to carry out the illegal operation.
“They are a gang of criminals who left various divisions, clustered together, moved to Wuse Banex and created a checkpoint where they perpetrated this act before fleeing,” he said.
Sanusi explained that the command declared the officers wanted after receiving reports of their activities and later arrested the gang leader, whose confession helped investigators track down the other members of the group.
“We got all of them. We are going to make sure they are severely punished. Those that are going to be dismissed will definitely be dismissed,” he added.
The commissioner also reiterated the directive of the Inspector-General of Police against the indiscriminate checking of citizens’ mobile phones by officers on patrol.
He advised residents not to submit to unlawful demands by police officers seeking to search their phones on the roadside, urging them to report such incidents immediately through official police emergency channels.
“You cannot stop anybody on the road and ask the person to bring out his phone for search. If any policeman stops you and asks to search your phone, don’t agree. Call the police emergency lines and we will ask them why,” Sanusi said.
He assured residents that the command would continue to investigate reports of extortion and other forms of police misconduct, adding that officers found guilty would face appropriate disciplinary action.
Sincerely, what a man can do, policewomen are doing better.
