Published 17th Oct, 2021

By Emmanuel Uti

In a video recorded on Saturday, Ogbu Godwin, a police officer, and his colleagues were seen harassing passengers of a commercial vehicle for challenging them in Okene, Kogi State.

The driver said his passengers had only questioned the policemen on for threatening to shoot a road user.

“Look at what the Nigeria Police are doing to the citizens of this country. They forced one of our passengers on their bus to withdraw some money. They slapped them for asking why they took the other passenger to a POS venture,” the driver said.

“One of them told us there would be a flow of blood if we were not careful, adding that the spilling of blood was the worst scenario.”

The video recorder said the police officers led by Godwin also arrested a student, gained access to his phone forcefully and took him to a nearby POS shop where they extorted N25,000 from him.

“They first asked him to transfer to them, but they also refused to give him an account number. One of them then changed to mufti, forced the student to board a bike with him to a place where they extorted N25,000 from him,” he said.

“The inscription on their Hilux was ‘Refurbished Police’. The boy did not do anything; they only found a laptop with him. He explained that he was a student, but they still forcefully took him to an ATM.”

When FIJ contacted William Ovye Aya, the Kogi State Police Public Relations Officer, he sent a press release stating that the Kogi State Police Command has commenced an investigation into the matter.

The statement reads: “The Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Police Command, CP Idrisu Dauda Dabban, psc (+), fdc, while condemning the incident, noted that the police officers have been identified and detained at the State Criminal Investigations Department.”

“The officers are: ASP Isah Barnabas, Inspector Ifediegwu Godwin, Sgt. Emmanuel Ochima and CPL Umameh Mathias who physically assaulted one of the travellers. The Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) has been issued an official query while the three (3) other junior officers are currently undergoing orderly room trial (Police internal disciplinary actions).”

According to Aya, the CP assured that any of the officers found wanting would be dealt with.

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