Disturbing reports of unnecessary harassment, intimidation and extortion of money from innocent citizens by officers and men of the Nigeria Police that has been on the front burner of public discourse for quite some time, has assumed a frightening dimension as some of them have now resorted to incriminating, arresting and extorting money from students of the Federal Polytechnic Nekede and the Federal University of Technology, FUTO, Owerri on trumped up charges.
Our roving reporter who unveiled the activities of some of these unscrupulous police officers, said, the policemen often stop students on the road and compel them to surrender their phones for unnecessary scrutiny. The moment they see money in their bank accounts, they order them to withdraw the money and hand it over to them or they foist unfounded allegations against him and subsequently whisk them away to unknown destinations. The students, out of fear, give out the money, which most times are their upkeep, feeding allowances or even their school fees.
One of the victims who narrated his ordeal in the hands of these corrupt police officers, identified himself as a fresh graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, who came to the school to sort out some issues. As he was on his way home, some policemen from the anti-cultism unit of the Imo State Police Command, suddenly halted him.
When he refused to part with money, they tagged him a cultist without any proof. On searching his phone which they forcefully took from him, they saw his bank balance of #50,000 which they told him to withdraw and hand over to them. When he persistently refused to surrender the money to them, they dragged him into their vehicle and zoomed off. And his whereabouts have been unknown since then.
This, according to our source, has also been the situation at the Federal University of Technology FUTO, Owerri, where the students are subjected to similar harassment, intimidation and extortion by policemen. There are also reports of students who were taken away for similar issues and are yet to be seen since then.
A cross section of Imolites who commented on the development which they described as absurd expressed dismay over how the police who have been silent and unable to address the incessant cases of kidnapping by alleged Fulani herdsmen around the Nekede, Ihiagwa, Avu and Obinze axis have decided to target and make innocent students who they deprive of their feeding and upkeep allowances by making them victims of false allegations and trumped up charges scapegoats’
They called on the state government and the police high command to step in and do something about the ugly situation, if they are not part of it.
When contacted over the ugly development,the command’s PRO,Okoye advised the victim to put up a petition against the officer involved.
