Juliana Francis
A traumatised Nigerian, SIR HENRY@Freakzille has taken to his social media handle to narrate how robbers in Police uniform beat and robbed him in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The victim, who took to his Twitter handle to narrate his ordeal said that since the incident, he has been in shock.
He said that he was “kidnapped” and taken in his car, he was slapped and his phone taken and browsed through, with the alleged policemen asking him to cough up N1m after checking his band account balance.
He said: “I have been in trauma and shock since I got kidnapped on Friday by men of the Nigeria Police Force. I went out to get fuel around East-west road (PH), which was around Mercy Land Junction and so I proceeded to use the Obirikwere flyover to turn and head towards NTA road, that was when I got stopped by a group of police officers who were on stop and search on the flyover, I noticed that their clothes had no name tags.
“I stopped and I was asked to get down from the car which I did, they asked to see the content of my car booth which I obliged and even tendered my ID card to show I work with a pharmaceutical company and had the right to have drugs-NAFDAC registered drugs, OTC drugs-, they were not satisfied and wanted to search my car too of which I reminded them that it has to be done one at a time because I have been a victim of policemen planting stuff in cars.
“ I don’t know why my concern made them nervous and they turned to me and started shouting at me, called me a yahoo boy, called me a criminal and all whatnot.
“I felt a sharp slap at the back of my head from another officer and before I knew what was happening I was in cuffs and pushed into the back seat of my car, some cars passed by and saw all this but no one wanted to come to my rescue as they drove off with me.
“They headed towards Rumuokoro and then to Eliozu, all this while they said I would see hell at their station unless I settle, my phone was taken, and they proceeded to make me unlock my phone and started going through it, went through my alerts and all, my social media pages and everything, placed my phone on airplane mode and asked me to make the transfer to them to the tune of N1million.
“I couldn’t do this because my main account had no app or atm or means of withdrawal except through the banking hall which I explained to them, all this started around 7:PM and I was been driven around the whole of PH even to Akpajio where they hailed some of their colleagues and then proceeded to label me a criminal; saying they found a pistol in my boot.. these officers humiliated me and took cash of N126,000 I had in my car after noticing I couldn’t make transfer anyhow at all.
“I was left around Onne Road with my car and told to do Thanksgiving because they would have wasted me. I was left there around 2:am and had to drive myself home from there in shock and disbelief.
“I had no means of identifying the officers, the follow-up vehicles were private cars with no plate numbers and this shows how subtle kidnaps are happening in this town by those meant to protect us. I was encouraged to share this with PH Twitter and also the police heads in Port-Harcourt would look into this.
“I lost cash, yes, but my life was preserved. Also, two other boys and a girl were also in the other vehicle and only God knows their fate. This happened on 28th July 2023.”
Reacting to his shared ordeal, the Rivers State Police Command @RiversPoliceNG, said: “Good morning sir, sorry for the inconvenience but please you can come to the office of the PPRO at the police headquarters Moscow Road, Port Harcourt for us to identify and sanction the erring police operatives.”
