A Canada based man, who hails from Obilubi, Obazu, Mbieri, in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, has raised alarm over what he described as harassment, intimidation and extortion of his kinsmen by officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force.
Obidinma, who, before his relocation to Canada in 2022, was an ace radio broadcaster and human rights activist, accused one Austin Aman, who hails from the same village with him, who he said was allegedly sacked from the police force, has been colluding with some bad elements in the police to intimidate and extort money from his kinsmen.
Speaking to our reporter on phone, Obidinma, who also operates the UHTV Naija online TV, stated that, Austin, who goes by the toga of “Civilian IG” often boasts of having the Imo State Commissioner of Police and the entire security apparatus in Imo State in his pocket. Hence, he can easily arrest and detain anybody in the community on the ground of the slightest disagreement, with the aid of his police cohorts, after which they collect huge sums of money for bail that they allegedly share among themselves.
He cited a recent case where Austin deliberately orchestrated an altercation with two local security watchers in the village and turned around to arrest them with his usual police cohorts who detained these two men on trumped up charges of threat to his life.
The two village security watchers were arrested and detained at the monitoring unit of the state command few minutes after they were released from the Mbieri divisional headquarters were they were first detained. He told our reporter that the two men were detained for three days at the monitoring unit before they were released after the police had taken a hundred and fifty thousand Naira from the community for their bail. Comrade Obidinma said he has drawn the attention of the Imo state commissioner of police to this development and he has promised to look into it.
He decried this development which he described as a criminal cartel running between the said Austin Aman and some rogue elements in the Imo police force command. He said he will await the CP’s investigation and outcome before taking further action on the matter, but however stated his resolve to escalate the matter to the National Assembly and the Force headquarters.
He also declared to explore legal actions if the police authorities do not call these elements to order. Obidinma warned that if this is not urgently addressed, it will smear the image and reputation of the police and the CP, as the people will see them as those intimidating, harassing and extorting the poor villagers”.
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