By Deborah Hassan
365Daily– A Nigerian student based in Edo State, Clement Ehinomen, has disclosed how some police officers forced him to give them over ₦1 million at gunpoint on Saturday, January 29, 2022, in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
Ehinomen, 24, who spoke with Premium Times, said four armed police officers in mufti, in an unmarked bus, blocked his car – a Mercedes Benz GLK – in the middle of the road, before forcing him and a male relative out of the car.
He added that the officers took them to a lonely police facility in the outskirts of Benin City where they were detained in a cell until he was forced to call friends and relatives to send him the money they requested for to secure his release.
According to him, he called a friend who transferred ₦1 million to his account, while two others transferred ₦50,000 and ₦14,000, respectively.
He narrated: “They said they would not receive the money in their account, so they took me to a POS to withdraw all the money. When I was withdrawing the money, the person (the POS operator) asked me why I was withdrawing a huge amount of money. “The police (officers) saw me talking to the person, they came out from their vehicle and started slapping me.
“They collected the money from me, took me to the police station and released me and my brother.”
Ehinomen said he posted his experience on popular social media app, Twitter, where Segun Awosanya, a human rights activist, popularly known as Segalink, saw it and intervened.
Sega’s intervention led to a call from the spokesperson of the police in Edo State, Bello Katongs, who asked Ehinomen to come and collect his money.
He displayed the recovered money on Twitter with the caption: “We thank God. I have received my money and the officers have been detained. I saw them.”
The police are yet to reveal the identity of the criminal officers.