Police Extorts Polytechnic Student N70,000 At Checkpoint For Having Two Phones – [See Transaction Proof]

Again some officers of the Nigeria Police Force has been accused of extortion by a Polytechnic Student in Kogi State.

A National Diploma 2 of the Auchi Polytechnic, Nicholas Victor, 22, explained his encounter with some officers of the force who stopped their vehicle while travelling along Okene road.

According to Victor, the officers attached to the state police command extorted money from him at the checkpoint because he owned two mobile phones.

The student explained that the incident had happened on August 4, while travelling to Auchi to collect his National ID card. He narrates further that the policemen on the checkpoint stopped their bus and ordered all the male passengers out of the vehicle and started inspecting their devices.

Victor alleged that the officers during the check made all other passengers paid various sums for crimes not committed, while he was held back despite giving them a sum of N4,200.

According to Victor, the officers demanded him to pay bigger amount because he had two phones, adding that his mother was forced to transfer N70,000 into the bank account of one of the officers, identified as John Eshiobugie.

“The other guys on the bus with me sort out themselves at the scene. When the police officers told me to pay them, I told them that I didn’t have any money on me except N4,200, which they refused to collect. They asked why I would not have money on me and labelled me an Internet fraudster because I was holding two phones,” Victor revealed.

“When they went through my phones, they saw my girlfriend’s pictures and ordered me to enter their van, threatening that I would have to bail myself before I would be allowed to go.”

“They asked me to pay N100,000 and before I could utter a word, one of them had slapped me, while another cocked his gun, threatening to shoot. The officers ordered the driver of the bus to go that I was not serious and that when I pay them, I would be released. The driver and other occupants begged on my behalf, but the officers threatened to shoot them if they did not leave.

“I then begged them to give me my phones to call my mother. When I called her, she begged them to collect the N4,200, but they refused.

“My mum begged them to take N10,000; they said they could only collect N70,000. So, my mum didn’t have any choice than to send the money she wanted to use to buy tiles for her new house.

“She is a single mother who does not have anything, but the police collected the little money we were managing. When she sent the money, the officers didn’t release me till one of them got an alert on his phone.”

Reacting to the report, the Kogi State Police Public Relations Officer, Willaims Aya, noted that he was unaware of the incident. He, however, urged a correspondent of The PUNCH who investigated the incident to forward all necessary details to him to aid police investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, a petrol station owner in Port Harcourt has challenged some men in mufti who claimed to be police officers, after they refused to reveal their identity and warrant for his arrest.

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