•IGP Egbetokun
Tricycle passengers in Anambra State, have called on the state police command to caution its men against incessant harassment, humiliation and extortion of passengers on major roads in the state.
They alleged that the level of extortion by policemen, who mount endless roadblocks on roads in the state, particularly in the commercial city of Onitsha, has become so inexplicable that life has become unbearable for the road users in the state, reports Vanguard.
A passenger, who identified himself as Kingsley Ebuka, who spoke at the human rights office in Onitsha, alleged that he boarded a tricycle at Oba in Idemili South Local Government Area of the state and was heading to the human rights office at Onitsha, when some policemen on uniform flagged the tricycle down and after extorting N200 from the tricycle operator, ordered some of the passengers to alight from the tricycle.
He said on alighting from the tricycle, in obedience to the order, the policemen ordered them to surrender their GSM phones to them for searching, adding that on surrendering the handsets to them, the policemen ordered each of the passengers to transfer as much as N350,000 to a certain POS account or be arrested and handed over to either Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS or Special Anti Cults Squad, SPACS, for prosecution as common criminals.
He said out of fear of being whisked off and probably shot dead along the road and tagged criminals or IPoB members, he drained the N150,000 remaining in his bank account to the designated POS account given to them by the policemen before they handed back their phones and went after other passengers.
Ebuka alleged that these policemen wearing black uniform stationed themselves with a white Hiace Commuter bus immediately after another police road block in front of Metallurgical Training Institute, MTI, in Onitsha on the Onitsha/Owerri dual carriageway.
He said the policemen had already detained some other passengers inside the white bus they were operating with and were threatening to move them to SARS or SPACS for allegedly failing to transfer a reasonable amount of money to the designated POS account.
He further alleged that their modus operandi was that when they order the passengers out of commercial tricycle or bus, they would force the passengers to open their phones and show them their account balance before they seize the phone and order the passengers to transfer the balance of the amount to the designated POS.
Commenting on the ugly development, Chairman of Campaign for Democracy, CD, in the South East Zone, Dede Uzor, said he was once a victim of such extortion but he used his influence to resist the policemen until crowd started gathering and wanted to attack them before they fled.
According to Uzor, “The policemen started mentioning one police formation to the other where they would take me to if I did not transfer certain huge amount of money to their designated POS account but I told them that I was ready to follow them to wherever they wanted to take me to.
“As we were arguing on that, a crowd gathered and captured one of them, while others fled but I pleaded with the crowd to let the captured one go and they obeyed me and let him go without harming or injury him.”
Uzor called on the state Commissioner of Police, Nnaghe Itam to fish out the perpetrators, who were tarnishing the image of the police in the state and deal with them, to deter others.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Tochukwu Ikenga told newsmen on phone that the command would investigate the matter and if found to be true, the perpetrators would be arrested and made to face the music.
