Matilda Omonaiye/
A civil society organisation, Behind Bar, has helped a businessman recover his money after alleged extortion by some policemen, led by one Sergeant John, yesterday in Asaba, Delta State.
The policemen had reportedly accosted the victim on his way to Asaba from Warri and found a female underwear and other female accessories in his bag during a routine search. The also went through his phone and saw his recent transaction records, which showed that he has a sizeable amount in his account.
Rather than verify the man’s claim that the items belonged to his wife, who shares the bag with him, they branded him a ritual killer and bundled him into their vehicle after threatening to kill him except he could bail himself out.
The policemen, who were allegedly working in collusion with mobile money operators, subsequently forced the victim to transfer N700,000 to them via POS transactions.
They, thereafter, deleted the records of the transaction from the victim’s phone and also wiped off the phone’s memory by resetting it to factory settings.
The Director-General of Behind Bar, Harrison Gwamnishu, shared the victim’s ordeal in a series of tweets on his handle, @HarrisonBbi18, yesterday night.
He also shared videos of how his organisation succeeded in retrieving the money from the policemen through the mobile money operator and when the recovered money plus N15,000 POS transaction charges were returned to the victim.
Gwamnishu tweeted: “A businessman who was returning from Warri to Asaba was arrested during stop and search by some Policemen.
“They searched his bag and saw female underwear (pant), soap etc.
“The man explained to them the items belongs to his wife who also shares the bag with him.
“They called him ‘RITUALIST’, seized his phone and started going through his phones and saw bank transactions.
“They denied him access to speak to his wife to verify his story or call any family member.
“They dragged him into the car, treated him like a criminal. Drove him round the lonely road of Warri, Abraka, Agbor and arrived Umunede, Delta State with a threat to kill him unless he bailed himself.
“Fellow Nigerians, he paid N700,000 ransom before he was freed. They deleted the debit sms alert from his phone, clicked on factory reset and cleared his phone.
“Hope you remembered I made mention last week that some policemen in Delta State work with POS operators?
“We busted…two teams last week (SAFER HIGHWAY) recovered the money but yet to see any disciplinary actions from Delta State Police Command.”
See video of how the money was recovered from the policemen: