Raphael Ede, Enugu
Condemnations have continued to trial the alleged N50,000 bribe that operatives of Enugu State Police Command allegedly demanded from some robbery victims in the state.
It was gathered that residents of Uwani, in Enugu, the state capital, were on Wednesday night robbed by a three-man gang. But luck ran out on one of them as a mob chased them, following shouts of help from the victims and one of the suspects was caught by the mob, with a laptop and mobile phones stolen from the victims recovered from him.
According to a source, “the mob descended on him and beat him to stupor. The police from Uwani Division later came and took him. However, the matter took another dimension as the police started demanding money from the victims.”
One of the victims told some journalists in Enugu that “the policemen earlier collected N15,000 from us after taking our statement.
“After that, they started again demanding N50,000 from us. They said the money would be used in taking care of medical bills of the armed robbery suspect. They threatened that if we don’t bring the money, we would go to prison should anything happen to the robbery suspect.”
“As I speak to you, some of our items have not been recovered. We were severely matched by the robbers and right now, nobody is talking about how we will be treated,” he narrated.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Ebere Amaraizu said he would get back but was yet to do so several hours after.