Policemen Uses POS To Extort N100,000 From Building Contractor

Police Operatives Accused Of Bribery

A building contractor, Emmanuel Alabede, has accused some policemen attached to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Edo State Police Command, of extorting N100,000 from him.

Report has it that the operatives allegedly collected the money through the use of Point Of Sale (POS) machine after issuing threats to kill him if he fails to adhere to the instruction.

Punch lerant that the contractor was travelling from Ibadan to Abuja when the car he was travelling in was stopped by the cops on the Ibilo-Okene Expressway and the bags of the occupants of the car were searched.

Alabede stated that his phone was requested for by the operatives which he declined, asking them to state his offence.

The contractor who happens to be twenty eight years old said after threat to his life and raise of voice, he had to release his phone.

He said, “They searched my phone but they found nothing incriminating; all they saw were pictures of uncompleted buildings. They asked me if the buildings belonged to me and I told them that they were not mine but they belonged to my clients.

“They said I was lying and accused me of being an Internet fraudster but I told them I was not and showed them my ID card and my company’s card, but they did not release me.

“While they were with my phone, a notification of alert of over N200,000 popped up on my phone from a client and they said they were going to collect the N200,000 from me.

“I told them that the money was not for me; that it was for a client that wanted me to work on his building, but they told me that if I didn’t give them the money they would kill me and nobody would hold them responsible.”

Alabede said when he refused to give the cops the bribe demanded, they told the driver of the car he was travelling in to go.

Alabede, who is from Oyo state said that he had to cooperate with the operatives to save his life.

He said, “I told them that I could not give them the whole money but I can give them part of it; so they told me that they would not collect anything less than N100,000 from me.

“They took me to a POS operator and I made a transfer of N100,000 to the operator who charged ₦2,500 for the transaction and gave the cops N97,500.”

Alabede further stated that the operatives who were in their uniform when his car was stopped, changed to mufti when they were going to the POS operator’s stand.

He said he reported to the police helpline (0805700000) immediately he left the scene but was rebuked by the person that picked the call for not calling when he was with the cops.

He added that the unnamed person directed him to the police Whatsapp channel (08057000003), where he was directed back to the helpline.

“I replied them that I had already called the helpline and it was from there that I was directed to the Whatsapp. Since then, I have not received any reply from the Whatsapp channel,” he said.