Some police officers in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, have been accused of extorting a man of N80,000.
According to the man, who has been identified as Daddy Geoffrey, the police officer allegedly planted a wrap of Indian hemp on him.
The man claimed the incident happened on Sunday, July 23, when the police officers conducted a stop-and-search at Obiri-Ikwerre junction (just before entering the Ozouba community) in Port Harcourt.
He said he was on his way to a friend’s party on Sunday night when the police officers stopped him at the junction.
He said the policemen searched him and found nothing, but instead of letting him go, one insisted that he was a ” Yahoo boy” despite explaining to the officer what he does for a living.
Mr Godffrey said he also showed the officers his ID card, but they insisted he was lying.
His words:
“The next thing was that they brought out a parcel of weed (he didn’t know where it came from, but he was confident it wasn’t from his bag) cause they already searched the first time.
“I’ve never held a blunt in my life; I don’t even have friends that come to smoke at my place, so why would I be carrying weed about? After everything, they said I was going to their Police station and would later hand me over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.
“After about two hours in handcuff inside their van, they finally agreed for me to pay them 100k, but I ended up paying 80k cause that was the only money I could access at that point.”
Mr Godffrey, who called for a refund of his hard-earned money and justice for abusing his rights and privileges to free movement, insisted that he was ready for drug tests to prove he was not an Indian hemp smoker.
