Rights activist, Harrison Gwamnishu, has raised an alarm to the Nigeria Police Force over alleged ‘abduction,’ torture and extortion of N1.1 million from some Nigerians by police operatives in Anambra State.
Mr Gwamnishu, in a post on his X handle on Sunday, said the police personnel who allegedly carried out the act included the Officer-in-Charge (OC) and some operatives of the Anti-Cultism Unit of the police in Enugu-Ukwu.
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Enugu-Ukwu is a community in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra.
“The OC and officers at police Anti-Cultism Unit Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State abducted, tortured and forced these victims to pay One Million, One Hundred and Nineteen Thousand Naira (N1,119,000) into an account they provided,” he wrote.
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“This has become a trend,” the activist noted.
He tagged the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, and the police in Anambra State, the Force New Media Officer, Aliyu Giwa, and the Complaint Response Unit of the police.
Extortion
Mr Gwamnishu uploaded on the microblogging platform screenshots of receipts for the transactions which the victims were allegedly forced to do.
He also uploaded photographs of two of the victims showing bruises and injuries, which they reportedly sustained from the torture carried out by the operatives during the incident.
The screenshots of the bank transactions indicated that there were eight different transfers by the victims into different bank accounts belonging to Ifeanyi Ofoegbu and Emmanuel Uzoma.
Seven of those accounts – which were of different banks – belong to Mr Ofoegbu, while Mr Uzoma owned one Access bank account allegedly used to receive the transferred fund.
The receipts indicated that N500,000; N263,000; N103,000; N53,000; N80,000; N100,000 and N10,000 were transferred to the accounts said to have been provided by the operatives.
Mr Gwamnishu did not provide the identities of the victims and those of the police operatives.
He did not also indicate the number of the victims, although there are indications that there were eight of them.
Police react
In response, the Complaint Response Unit of the police asked Mr Gwamnishu to provide details of the victims for investigation.
“Dear @HarrisonBbi18, kindly provide the victim’s details for further investigation. Thank you for contacting NPF-CRU,” the police unit wrote.
Not the first time
This is not the first time police operatives have been accused of extortion, torture and abduction.
In fact, cases of police brutality, extortion, extrajudicial killings and other unprofessional activities in Nigeria have continued despite sanctions by police authorities, such as dismissal from service.
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The latest incident occurred barely two weeks after police in Anambra State arrested and detained six senior officers who allegedly tortured and extorted N200,000 from a trader in Onitsha, the commercial hub of Anambra.
In February, three officers were dismissed over alleged kidnapping, extorting N1.7 million and car snatching in Imo, another state in the South-east.
Two months ago, police operatives shot dead a private motorcyclist in Ebonyi State.
In November 2024, police operatives from the Crack Squad in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State shot dead a labourer and critically injured three others in the state.
A similar incident happened in the same Abakaliki in 2018 when a police officer shot and killed a commercial motorcyclist for allegedly refusing to give him N50 bribe.
In August 2024, police operatives in Bayelsa State extorted N3 million from a man at gunpoint.
The officers were subsequently arrested after the victim petitioned police authorities.
The police operatives later returned the N3 million to the victim, about three weeks later.
