How 4 police officers arrested for extorting ICPC chairman of N53,000

THE Commissioner of Police, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Ahmed Sanusi, has ordered the arrest of four Police officers for extorting the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Crimes Commission,  Dr. Musa Aliyu, SAN, during an illegal stop-and-search operation in Abuja, of the sum of N53,000.

Sanusi who briefed newsmen on police operations, yesterday, in Abuja, described the officers as “thieves under serving of wearing the police uniform.’

He said the officers mounted an unauthorised checkpoint around the Banex area of Wuse after leaving their respective duty posts and extorted the ICPC chairman without knowing his identity.

According to Sanusi, “The ICPC chairman was forced to withdraw N53,000 through a Point of Sale operator and even paid the transaction charges before the officers shared the money among themselves.

“I must say here also, that we have four policemen in custody as we speak who successfully extorted somebody of high importance, unknown to them, that this person is a highly placed person in society. In clear terms, they extorted the Chairman of the ICPC.

“They extorted him of N53,000. They took him to a POS, operator. He withdrew the money, paid the charges and they shared the money among themselves.

“They are a gang of criminals who left various divisions, clustered together, moved to Wuse Banex and created a checkpoint where they perpetuated this act before fleeing.”

Sanusi said the command declared the officers wanted before arresting their gang leader, whose confession led to the arrest of the other members of the syndicate.

“We got all of them. We are going to make sure they are severely punished. Those that are going to be dismissed will definitely be dismissed,” he added.

The commissioner reiterated that the Inspector-General of Police had prohibited indiscriminate search of citizens’ mobile phones by officers on patrol.

He advised residents to refuse any unlawful demand by policemen to search their phones on the roadside and immediately report such incidents through the police emergency lines.

“You cannot stop anybody on the road and ask the person to bring out his phone for search. If any policeman stops you and asks to search your phone, don’t agree. Call the police emergency lines and we will ask them why,” Sanusi said.

He urged members of the public to promptly report cases of extortion and other misconduct by police personnel, assuring that offenders would be tracked down and sanctioned.

“We will still enforce the IGP’s directive. Some of them are on the task because they are criminally minded. They want to perpetuate such acts. If we get them, they will face disciplinary actions and will be made to face the consequences,” Sanusi said

He also disclosed that some suspected one-chance robbers were arrested by Police operatives in a heavily tinted black Golf salon car following a hot chase in the life-camp area of the city and dangerous instruments and drugs were recovered from them.

Culled from Vanguard