Two Police Officers Arrested in Rivers State for Alleged Extortion
The Nigeria Police Force in Rivers State has taken action by arresting two of its personnel who have been accused of extorting citizens. The officers were apprehended after a complaint was lodged by a young man who claimed to have been a victim of their alleged extortion.
Two Police Officers Arrested for Extortion in Rivers State as Twitter Complaint Surfaces
Following a complaint made by a young man on Twitter, where he tagged the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Adejobi Olumuyiwa, the Rivers State Police Command has arrested two of its personnel over allegations of extortion. The young man expressed his frustration with ongoing incidents of extortion and harassment in the state, despite previous warnings from the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba.
In response to the Twitter complaint, the spokesperson for the Rivers State Police Command, Grace Iringe-Koko, confirmed the arrest of the accused police officers. It was revealed that the arrested officers were assigned to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department of the Rivers State Police Command.
Lagos Police Spokesperson Addresses Harassment Incident
In a separate incident in the Ishashi area of Lagos, known for cult activities, the Lagos Police spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, responded to a video shared by a Twitter user identified as Partron. The video depicted police officers harassing a young Nigerian on the streets of Lagos, allegedly because he refused to surrender his phone.
Hundeyin explained that the officers’ decision to search the young men and discovering illicit drugs warranted further investigation due to the association between cultists and drug use. He also referred to the video depicting the harassment of the young man as malicious in nature.
Justifying why the young man was stopped from making a call, Hundeyin said the police officers were only trying to stop the destruction of evidence as the young man could have alerted his ‘gang members.’
He also accused the young man of resisting arrest.
He wrote: “Your narrative is wrong and misleading. It is a fact that Ishashi is one of the hotbeds of cultism in Lagos State. It is equally a known fact that these cultists engage in heavy drug abuse. So doing a random search of three young men moving together and finding hard drugs them would definitely call for a closer look.
”Yes, he was being prevented from making a call. No one attempted to collect his phone. This is not the norm in all cases. This particular case borders on a felony, cultism. Freshly arrested suspects in cases as sensitive as cultism will not be allowed to make calls IMMEDIATELY so that they don’t alert their gang members to destroy evidence and bolt.
”Calls can later be made after the initial documentation and in the presence of the IPO. This was a clear case of resisting arrest, and nothing about phone.
“Resorting to theatrics and false accusations along sensitive issues of phone searching will not deter @LagosPoliceNG from carrying out its mandate. Doing malicious video recordings will equally not cow the police into docility.”
