By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Two police officers said to be detectives of State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) of the Rivers Police Command have been arrested and detained over alleged extortion of members of the public.
The arrest of the police detectives came three days after Rivers governor, Siminalayi Fubara, complained over reports of extortion, harassment of innocent citizens and other criminal activities allegedly being perpetrated by operatives of disbanded ‘SARS’ Officials in some parts of the state.
Governor Fubara had directed the Command should fish out and punish officers involved in the alleged harassment and extortion when the state Commissioner of Police, CP Emeka Nwonyi visited him last Friday.
He urged the CP to ensure that such extortion and harassment are stopped..
But it was gathered that the two detectives were arrested following a complaint by one of the victims of their extortions on twitter.
The victim had also tagged the Force Spokesperson , CSP Prince Adejobi Olumuyiwa.
The Force spokesperson had upon receipt of the complaint from one of the victim 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 phones on road after several warning from the IGP”.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Rivers State, SP Grace Iringe-Koko had in a tweet in response to instruction of the Force PPRO, confirmed arrest of one of the Police Officers.
But she did not state if they are in the SCIID or the particular unit 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.
“[email protected],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 insist that you should avail us with your email address,” SP Koko added.
Meanwhile, sources told our reporter that the complaint simply identified as Napaul was threatened to drop the case .
However in a reply to tweet message sent by our reporter 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 Port Harcourt via a public transport, some Police Officers asked the vehicle he was in 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 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 about 90 minutes and they were released only after they transferred money into the account number one of the Officers gave them.
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 have attracted the attention of the Rivers State Governor.
Photo Captions:
CP Nwonyi Polycarp Emeka, Commissioner of Police Rivers State
