On Friday, the 11th of November, 2022, Some clients called me in the afternoon that their vehicle was stopped by some rogue police officers who were conducting an “illegal stop and search” around Banex Plaza, Wuse (according to the report I got back from my inquiry).
They were harassed by the police officers who also thoroughly searched them, searched the vehicle they were in, and even their phones.
Later on, they were detained and their phones were confiscated by the police officers. The police officers told them that they can only release their phones back to them and let them go if they pay the sum of 1 Million naira (as a ransom). The boys who obviously cannot raise that outrageous amount started pleading with the officers. The police, seeing that the boys did not want to come to terms and pay the money, bungled the boys into their van and started driving them around Abuja, threatening to “waste” the boys if they refused to raise the money in a thirty minutes time frame.
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Since the boys were unable to raise the money within the time limit given to them, they ended up taking the boys to the station which is the SARS office in Asokoro, (the one that is infamously known as abattoir). They detained the guys for hours until the guys pleaded that they would only be able to raise N250,000. The boys were able to pay the police officers the N250,000 sum; the police officers in their usual way refused to accept bank transfer from the boys so there won’t be any evidence, rather, they escorted them to a POS stand nearby the station, where the boys used their debit cards to withdraw, N250,000 cash and paid the police officers before they police officers released their phones to them and released them.
While all these were going on, they refused the boys to have any form of communication or make contact with someone else, or let anybody know what was going on with them. The police officers refused them to even pick up calls or make calls.
Acts like these sound quite familiar and resonate with a lot of people who may have shared a similar traumatizing experience in the cold hands of the officers of the Nigerian police force.
The Inspector General of police and the police authorities have done a lot in weeding out rogue officers from the force but they obviously need to do a lot more. There are more rogue police officers out there harassing and extorting innocent citizens on daily bases.
Acts of this nature by these police officers are in all ramifications and by every stretch of the imagination criminal. The operation they were on was illegal stop and search, arresting the boys and demanding ransom for their release or they will “waste” them can only be described as Armed robbery and kidnapping.
We have forwarded an official petition in this regard to the appropriate authorities and will follow it up to see a justifiable outcome. We are also hoping that the police authority rises to the occasion and takes appropriate action and sanctions against those officers.
