Some policemen have extorted N29.9 million from a realtor who was driving to a project location in the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday.
Harrison Gwamnishu, a human rights advocate, narrated the realtor’s experience at the hands of the officers of the Nigeria Police Force in a video post via his X handle on Friday.
Harrison’s tweet read:
“This is beyond extortion. The money you took from this young man is called ransom. This young man was driving yesterday to his site where he was building because he has a building project in Abuja here and he was stopped by some police officers who were dressed in black with AK47 rifles and double magazines.”
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“They took him away. They took him round Abuja. In some cases we’ve witnessed before, that’s how they always operate. They took him to an unknown destination, like he told me. He was scared at a point. They started checking his phone. They saw his account balance and wallet, everything.
“They told him to send all the money in his account to the Access and Moniepoint account numbers they provided to him. After sending all in his account, he started calling his friends for more. His friends started sending different amounts. That was how he paid a total of N29,900,000.”
Harrison attached blurred receipts of the money transfers to the video post, adding that no complaint was made against the realtor and no statement was obtained from him but the officers forced him to take a video of the incident. He wrote:
“They forced him to make a video. Like other cases we’ve been handling for years, they will make you do a video to indict yourself that you a fraudster, cultist, ritualist or a member of the IPOB (These are the trends from the cases we’ve handled for the past nine years.”
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Police authorities have waded into the matter, as Gwamnishu stated that he would make sure the money was recovered.
Olumuyiwa Adejobi, the police public relations officer, wrote on X on Saturday morning that the police were already investigating the matter. “We have taken over this case at the FHQ. The victims and Harrison came to my office on Friday, and we have commenced the investigation into the case. Justice must be served,” he said.
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