IGP orders investigations into alleged extortion of N22m worth of bitcoin by some officers in Lagos
The Nigerian Police Force started investigations into the
alleged unprofessionalism, abuse of office, and extortion to the tune of
twenty-two million Naira worth of bitcoin from citizens of Lagos state. This allegation
is leveled against the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Nwawe Cordelia, and
others who are serving at the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID)
Alagbon Lagos.
In an interview with Sahara reporters, two young Nigerians Yusuf
Samson Dayo and Tobiloba Peter alleged that three officers attached to the
force criminal investigation Department Annex Alagbon close Lagos State had on
July 14 2021 extorted the 22,000,000 Naira worth of bitcoin.
According to their
story, a team of police officers in mufti stopped them while they were driving along
the Ikoyi/Ajah Expressway. The team was being led by Officer Austin who adopted
the fictitious name “Osas”.
The two young
Nigerians said they were treated like criminals while their boss one DSP Cordelia
Nwanue with force Number 145342, ordered the officers to kill them if they
cannot pay 20 million Naira as bail.
They said:
“We were driving on the Ikoyi/Ajah Expressway precisely at 1004 on
the 14th of July 2021, when a team of police officers in mufti accosted us and
ordered us to park. We parked and the police officers jumped into the car and
ordered us to open our phones.
“Since we have nothing to hide, we gave them our phones and they found nothing
incriminating. To our surprise, they ordered us to drive down to their office,
we insisted we must know our offenses before we can move down to the station.
But the police officers descended on us and beat us for disobedience. They
claimed we were too fresh not to be fraudsters. We begged them and showed them
that we are realtors. We gave them our identity cards and showed them some of
our ongoing projects but they insisted we were fraudsters.
When we got
to the police station at FCID Annex, Alagbon Close, Lagos, we were quickly
pushed into the cell and they went away with our mobile phones. The police
officers returned some hours later and told us we were trading in Bitcoins.
Before we knew it, they started beating us and calling us Yahoo boys, we told
them we were not Yahoo boys. We explained that we are realtors and it was
because of the decline in naira that we converted our money into bitcoin, but
they kept beating us and they said we should write a statement around 8:00 pm
in the night.
We wrote
the statements and they tore it into pieces and wrote another statement for us
and forced us to sign it. We did sign the statement and they took them before
their boss, DSP Cordelia Nwanue with force number 145341, Admin section, FCID
Annex, Alagbon Lagos,” they added.
Mrs. Uwanue asked her officers what happened and they narrated the whole story
to her, they told her we are Yahoo boys which we denied and the woman said they
should give us bail conditions. They demanded N20million from us and when we
said we don't have such an amount of money. The woman said they should go and
kill us if we insist we cannot pay them N20million as bail.
Officer Austin who led the team also adopted a fictitious name so that people
will not know his true name. He was addressed as Osas by DSP Uwanue, he was the
one who took us to the cell and threatened to kill the two of us if we cannot
transfer the N20million in bitcoin to them.
So when he brought out his gun and was taking us out of the cell to kill us as
ordered by his boss, DSP Uwanue, we now succumbed to him and said he should
remove the money from our account. He insisted he wanted bitcoin and not naira.
He provided another bitcoin account and he transferred N22million equivalent of
bitcoin from our account.” the victims said
In a
statement released this evening, Police spokesperson, Frank Mba, said an
investigation became imperative following the allegations leveled against
the officers. He said DSP Cordelia and the other Police personnel
allegedly indicted in the report, have been ordered to report to the Special
Investigation Panel, Force Headquarters, Abuja, on Tuesday, 21st December 2021
to answer to the allegations against them.
He
said the Special Investigation Panel will be headed by DCP Olaolu
Adegbite, MFR, of the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB).
''DCP Adegbite holds a Masters
Degree in Philology (Russian Language) from the Pushkin Institute, Moscow,
Russia, and is an alumnus of the FBI National Academy, Quantico, Virginia, USA.
DCP Adegbite, a member of the Order
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (MFR), was a pioneer investigator with the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) where he rose to be Director of
Operations (2012-2015). An experienced and detailed investigator, he is
expected to bring his vast knowledge in investigating corruption-related cases to
bear in resolving this case.
The Force
advises any member of the public who has had similar experiences of
high-handedness or extortion by the officers in question, her team, or any
other officer at the FCID Alagbon to come forward with detailed information to
enable the panel to achieve a wholistic investigation.'' Mba said
The IGP has clearly
stated that the alleged actions of the officers in question do not in any way
represent the standards and practices of the Nigerian Police Force and that any
officer found wanting must face the full wrath of the law. He averred that members
of the public should remain calm as the force will provide regular updates
about the investigation and make the outcomes of the investigation public.
