The Rivers State Police command has arrested and detained four its officers attached to Puff Adder Tactical Police unit, who allegedly extorted N204,000 from one Mr. Kingsley Dike, a 200-Level student of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt.
Their arrest followed an order by the Commissioner of Police, CP Eboka Friday, shortly after members of the Centre for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign led the student to the office of the Police Commissioner on Monday, to lodge a formal compliant on the matter.
Speaking on the development, a lawyer with the Rights group, Charles Edward, commended CP Eboka for the step he took on the matter.
Edward further urged the Police to ensure a thorough investigation into the matter and if the officers are found culpable, they should be arraigned in court to serve as deterrent to others.
Meanwhile, the student, Dike, in an interview with journalists explained that he was on his way home last Friday, at about 10pm in a bolt (chartered vehicle), when the policemen stopped him along Ogbogoro-Egbelu road near Port Harcourt.
According to the complainant, after a search was conducted on him and his fellow student, the Police men still took them to their base in Aluu despite the fact that nothing was found on them.
The student disclosed that at the station, the Police officers ordered him to remove the code on his phone and went through the phone and found nothing.
Dike alleged that the Police officers threw them in the cell on Friday night and brought them out on Saturday morning, and were ordered with threats to write their statements, that they were internet fraudsters.
Speaking further, Dike ssid that for fear of being killed, they wrote they were internet fraudsters after which the Police officers gave them an account number which they transferred N204,000, to before they were released on Saturday.
Daily Sun gathered that the accused Police officers were detained at State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Port Harcourt, while the money allegedly extorted by the Police officers from the student has been recovered.
