Ezekiel, a 19-year-old student at the Federal Polytechnic Bida in Minna, Niger State, first lost N140,000 to police officers on July 14. Recently, he was extorted again, losing N7,000 to an officer at the Kpakungu Police Station while seeking justice.
On Friday, Ezekiel was at the Kpakungu Police Station after Ofonime Udoh, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), requested that he identify the officers who initially extorted him. Instead of receiving help, an officer at the station demanded N7,000 from him for “paper and fuel.”
The initial incident occurred on July 14 when men identifying themselves as Operation Flush officers from Kpakungu Police Station took Ezekiel away and extorted N140,000 from him. The officers, noticing a substantial amount in his OPay wallet, demanded he bail himself out with N700,000 and seized his phone. Desperate to escape the situation, Ezekiel paid N10,000 to Muhammed Yahaya, one of the officers, who promised to negotiate his bail with other officers.
Eventually, the officers took Ezekiel to a point-of-sale merchant, where he transferred N130,000 from his account.
“On Friday morning, they took me to the point-of-sale merchant I transferred to and got her statement. When someone mentioned the name of the officer to whom I first transferred money before visiting the merchant, a policewoman said that she knew Yahaya and that he was from another branch,” Ezekiel told the news outlet.
When contacted for comments, DPO Udoh stated that the matter was still under investigation and that his team was searching for the officers involved in the extortion. “The POS merchant gave us a name; we’re looking for the person. They said they came with a Hilux vehicle with the inscription ‘Operation Flush,’ but there are many ‘Flush’ vehicles, and they could come from anywhere. We are trying to track his number. We are looking for someone who will help us track the number if they can get him,” Udoh said.
When reached for comment, Yahaya claimed he was not around but promised to appear at Kpakungu Police Station this weekend. He refused to comment on the extortion allegations.
Source: fij.ng
