From Tony John, Port Harcourt
Two police officers said to be personnel of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) in Rivers State, have been arrested and detained for alleged extortion.
The arrest came three days after Rivers Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, frowned at extortion and other criminal activities by police officials in some parts of the state.
Governor Fubara had frowned at the harassment and extortion of Rivers youths by some policemen when the Commissioner of Police, CP Emeka Nwonyi, paid him a visit in Government House last week Friday.
The Rivers governor urged Nwonyi to investigate complaints of ‘SARS’ personnel extorting and harassing youths in the state while expressing shock that he (governor) thought ‘SARS’ had been disbanded.
The governor further urged the state Police boss to investigate the complaints and ensure such extortion and harassment are stopped.
However, in the recent incident, Daily Sun gathered that the Police officers were arrested following a complaint by one of the victims of extortion on Twitter tagging the Force Spokesperson, CSP Prince Adejobi Olumuyiwa.
The Force spokesperson had upon receipt of the complaint from one of the victims tweeted, “So, PPRO Rivers, come up and take up this case while we do the needful from Abuja. By now, we are not expected to still be seeing or hearing policemen searching people’s phone on road after several warnings from the IGP”.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Rivers State, SP Grace Iringe-Koko had in a tweet in response to the instruction of the Force PPRO confirmed arrest of one of the Police officers. But, she did not state if they were personnel of SCIID and if all the money extorted have been recovered from them (Police officers).
“Good evening, Sir. The officer in this post has been arrested and detained, investigation is ongoing. I urge the complainant to come and facilitate the investigation process for us to give feedback to members of the public.
“Sir@LifeofNapaul, you said you are no longer interested in this matter of alleged extortion you reported through this medium while the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State command is fully interested and insists that you should avail us with your email address,” SP Iringe-Koko added.
Meanwhile, sources said that the complainant, who was simply identified as Napaul, was threatened to drop the case.
However, in a reply to tweet message sent by a source to his inbox, Napaul denied being threatened .
He said: “What are you hearing? I wasn’t threatened. I am done with anything concerning the case and I want to live my life.”
Earlier, Napaul explained that while on his way to PortHarcourt via a public transport, the Police officers asked them to park. He said the occupants of the vehicle were searched, their WhatsApp chats were opened one by one, every app was searched and they (Police) found nothing.
He said the Police officers asked the driver of the commercial vehicle (Sienna) to go with the female passengers while four of them who are men in the vehicle were left behind.
The victim disclosed that the Police officers held them for at least 90 minutes and they were left to go when one of the officers gave them account number that they (victims) transferred money to before they were released.
Meanwhile, some Nigerians on Twitter, have called on the Inspector General of Police to overhaul the unit/department whose personnel are responsible for the resurgence of ‘SARS’ activities which had attracted the attention of the Rivers State governor.