Nwosu Alex, a medical doctor and resident of Umuahia, Abia State, has alleged that an officer attached to the Counter-Terrorism Unit of the Nigeria Police Force extorted N40,000 from him on Saturday.

Alex was travelling to Aba for a business meeting when he met police officers who stopped him and requested for his car particulars. Seeing that the documents were intact, one of them asked to check the engine.

“I was driving from Umuahia, and then at the last check point before entering Aba, some police officers stopped me. After finding nothing in my booth, they checked my papers and driving licence. Then a young man asked me to pull my bonnet. He started crosschecking the engine number with my papers. This was a car I’d been driving since 2012,” he told FIJ.

“He said he couldn’t see my engine number clearly and that he would drive the car to the police station where it would be impounded. He insisted that I paid him N50,000, which he later cut to N40,000 after much plea. I knew he was out to delay me, so I decided to pay lest I missed the lifetime opportunity I was going for. I also knew I could get my money back by telling my story online.”

Alex also hinted that the POS agent who facilitated the transaction may have been strategically planted at the location by the police officers.

“There was a POS operator very close to them. I understand that that is their business. It’s what they do. They collected the money there and I moved on,” he said.

Although the police officer had identified himself as Superintendent Patrick, the phone number he gave Alex returned ‘Cindo Gezawa’ on True Caller. FIJ’s call to the number went unanswered.