The Federal Capital Territory Police Command has detained four police officers over the alleged extortion of N53,000 from the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Dr Musa Aliyu (SAN), during an illegal stop-and-search operation in Abuja.
FCT Commissioner of Police Ahmed Sanusi disclosed this on Monday while briefing journalists in Abuja, describing the officers as “thieves” who had no business wearing the police uniform.
According to him, the officers mounted an unauthorised checkpoint around the Banex area of Wuse after abandoning their duty posts and extorted the ICPC chairman without realising his identity. He said the ICPC boss was forced to withdraw the money through a Point of Sale operator and even paid the transaction charges before the officers shared the proceeds among themselves.
“I must say here too that we have about 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,” Sanusi said.
“They extorted him of N53,000. They took him to a POS, he withdrew the money, paid the charges and they shared the money among themselves.”
The Commissioner said investigations showed the officers had deserted their designated posts and formed a gang that mounted the illegal checkpoint to extort motorists. “They are a gang of criminals who left various divisions, clustered together, moved to Wuse Banex and created a checkpoint where they perpetrated this act before fleeing,” he said.
He added that the command declared the officers wanted before arresting their gang leader, whose confession led to the arrest of the other syndicate members. “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,” Sanusi said.
The Commissioner reiterated that the Inspector-General of Police had prohibited indiscriminate search of citizens’ mobile phones by officers on patrol, and urged residents to refuse any unlawful demand to search their phones on the roadside and to report such incidents immediately.
“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,” he 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 IG’s directive. Some of them are on the task because they are criminally minded. They want to perpetrate such acts. If we get them, they will face disciplinary actions and will be made to face the consequences,” Sanusi said.
