Rivers State Police Command says it has arrested and detained a police officer accused of extortion.
The command disclosed this in post via its Twitter handle late Monday night.
The arrest of the officer comes after a Twitter user simply identified as Napaul with the user name @LifeOfNapaul narrated his ordeal in the hands of some policemen in Rivers state while on his way to Port Harcourt via a public transport.
Napaul in a series of tweets Sunday evening, said their vehicle was stopped by some policemen in the middle of nowhere and started searching him and three other passengers for incriminating evidence.
He said the police man collected his phone ad went though all the apps one after the other including all his WhatsApp messages.
He noted that the policemen found nothing incriminating and demanded N50,000 each from him and three other guys in the vehicle, noting that the rest of the passengers were women.
The victims parted with N10,000 each before they were allowed to continue the journey. He attached the picture of one of the policemen involved in the alleged extortion.
His post read, “I’m so tired and exhausted mentally because this has been occurring. The last time, I was taken to the police station, bundled like a criminal, because I use an iPhone.
“Today (Sunday), on my way to PH via public transport, in the middle of nowhere, we were told to park, I was searched, my WhatsApp chats were opened one by one, every app was searched and they found nothing.
“Bruh, in the middle of nowhere, these guys said they wouldn’t free us until we ‘serviced’ them, we were just four guys in the Sienna, the rest were women. They told the driver to leave us but I kept begging the driver to stay.”
The victim said the encounter lasted for over one hour, adding that when he attempted to engage the policemen to resolve the matter peacefully, he was handcuffed.
He wrote, “Bro, I’m not a criminal, they said I’m a suspect, I kept asking ‘how?’ At that moment, I was so angry. The officers asked for N50,000, and in the end, we paid 10k each, 10k each for being a Nigerian youth. The funny thing is that these so-called officers were counting the money they made from extortion in front of us.
“The account number I sent the money to was a woman’s account number and I searched Facebook and discovered she lives in Abuja. I didn’t get their names, the Hilux they used wasn’t the official Nigeria Police Hilux and it had no plate number.”
Reacting, the Rivers State Police Command, in a tweet using its handle, @RiversPoliceNG, said the state Commissioner of Police, Nwonyi Emeka, condemned the action of the policemen.
“The Commissioner of Police we have in Rivers State Command has zero tolerance for such shameful acts, the officer will be identified and face disciplinary measures while your money will be refunded,” the police stated.
In another follow up tweet, the command said, “the officer in this post has been arrested and detained, investigation is ongoing.”
Good evening sir, the officer in this post has been arrested and detained, investigation is ongoing,I also urge the complainant to come and facilitate the investigation process for us to give a feed back to members of the public, you can still reach me via this number09014273818. https://t.co/n3n3lQUP60
— Rivers State Police Command (@RiversPoliceNG) June 12, 2023
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.