Police operatives return N810,000 allegedly extorted from Nigerian

Some police operatives in Anambra State have returned N810,000, which they allegedly extorted from a Nigerian.

How it happened

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how four police operatives allegedly extorted the money from the man last Friday.

A human rights activist, Harrison Gwamnishu, had drawn the attention of the Nigerian Police to the alleged extortion via a post on his X handle on Tuesday.

Mr Gwamnishu uploaded on the X handle a voice note of the unidentified man and a screenshot of his transaction receipt indicating that the N810,000 was withdrawn from his bank account.

In the voice note, the victim narrated how the operatives allegedly flagged down his vehicle at Upper Iweka Onitsha and forced him to withdraw the money.

The operatives who were from the Area Command Onitsha, according to the victim, subsequently planted a pack of marijuana in his vehicle, which they planned to use to incriminate him.

He said the operatives also accused him of being an internet fraudster and forced him to handle the pack of marijuana while they filmed him, apparently to manufacture evidence against him.

The police in Anambra State, in response, said their attention had been to the extortion allegation.

In a statement on Tuesday, the police spokesperson in the state, Tochukwu Ikenga, said the police had initiated efforts to identify the officers.

On his part, the Force spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, vowed that the incident would be investigated.

Money recovered

Mr Gwamnishu, the human rights activist, would later announce that the N810,000 had been recovered from the operatives and returned to the victim.

“I wish to inform you all that the money has been recovered and handed over to the victim,” he wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday evening.

He suggested it was unclear if police authorities would prosecute the operatives for the alleged extortion.

Handover

Mr Gwamnishu uploaded a video clip on the Facebook page showing when the money was being handed over to the victim.

An unidentified woman in plain cloth was seen handing over the money to the victim, whose face was blurred in the clip.

Some officials of the Behind Bar Initiative, a human rights group headed by Mr Gwamnishu, were also present during the handover of the money to the victim.