Four police officers have been detained by the Federal Capital Territory Police Command for allegedly extorting 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.
The 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 leaving their respective duty posts and extorted the ICPC chairman without knowing his identity.
He said the ICPC boss 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.
The commissioner explained that about four policemen were currently in custody after successfully extorting a highly placed member of society without realising who he was — someone who turned out to be the Chairman of the ICPC. He noted that the officers had taken their victim to a POS operator, where he withdrew N53,000, covered the transaction charges himself, and watched as the officers divided the money among themselves afterward.
The police commissioner said investigations revealed that the officers had abandoned their designated duty posts and formed a gang that mounted an illegal checkpoint to extort motorists.
He described the officers as a criminal gang that had left their various divisions, grouped together, and moved to Wuse Banex, where they set up the illegal checkpoint to carry out the extortion before fleeing the scene.
Ajao 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.
He added that the command had rounded up all the suspects and would ensure they faced severe punishment, including dismissal for those found culpable.
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.
Sanusi stressed that no policeman had the authority to stop anyone on the road and demand to search their phone, urging citizens not to comply with such requests, and instead to call the police emergency lines so the officers involved could be questioned.
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.
