The Rivers State Police Command has denied reports that officers of its Anti-Kidnapping Unit who brutalised a man, his brother, and two others for refusing to pay a ₦1million bribe for a tinted glass permit have been dismissed from service.
The victims, including Cletus Emmanuel Onyekachi, were violently assaulted along Igbo-Etche Road in Port Harcourt last week after refusing to yield to the demand.
Videos of the assault showing policemen flogging, slapping, and stepping on Onyekachi’s head had sparked nationwide outrage.
However, in a video statement released on Friday, the Rivers Police spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko, dismissed viral claims that the officers had been sacked.
“I want to talk about the case of Emmanuel Cletus Oyekachi and the anti-kidnapping unit of police. You people spreading on social media that we have dismissed those officers — it is a lie. We have not dismissed them,” she said.
Iringe-Koko explained that while the officers were under investigation, the command had only subjected them to internal disciplinary procedures.
“We have our internal disciplinary measures we put in place and how we checkmate our officers that did wrong. But the one they are talking that they have dismissed those officers, we have not dismissed them. Already, disciplinary actions have been placed on those officers,” she added.
The victim, in a video made available to SaharaReporters on Friday morning, earlier recounted how the police officers brutalised him and three others after he refused to pay a ₦1million bribe allegedly demanded by the officers over an expired tinted permit.
Onyekachi said that the policemen stopped him on Igbo-Etche Road, near Ibu-Ichie roundabout, while he was returning from a car wash.
According to him, the officers first demanded his vehicle papers before accusing him of having an expired tinted permit.
He said when he tried to explain that the renewal portal was congested, the policemen allegedly switched to extortion and demanded a shocking ₦1million bribe, insisting he would be taken to the station if he failed to pay.
“One of them told me straight that I should ‘bring one meter’ (₦1million) for the tinted permit. I thought he was joking until he made it clear that he was serious,” he said.
“I told him even people who commit murder don’t pay ₦1million as a fine. For tinted glass? I even offered ₦20,000 just so they could let us go, but they rejected it,” Onyekachi said in a video obtained by SaharaReporters.
When he attempted to place a call to a friend for financial assistance, the officers allegedly accused him of trying to use “contacts” against them, seized his phone, and descended on him with slaps, punches, and whips.
Post a Comment