The Director General, Young Nigeria Rights Organisation, Victor Ojei, has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, over the continued extortion, corruption and illegal detention of Nigerians by the IGP X-Squad in Delta State.
The activist in a petition addressed to the Coordinator, National Human Rights Commission, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Police Service Commission and others, on Sunday in Asaba, noted that the IGP X-Squad had continued their nefarious act unabated.
He alleged that the IG squad in Asaba recently demanded N10m and then later settled for N500,000 from a Poland-based Nigerian.
“Your attention is needed to the recent abuse of office by some police officers in Delta State, we have received a lot of reports from various parts of the state and in the course of our intervention, we find out that the operatives of the IGP X squad are only to extort innocent citizens.
“They told us that Commissioner of Police Delta State, Hafiz Inuwa, has no power to instruct them because they are operating under the IGP.
“Asaba and other part of the state, there have been violations and abuse of people’s rights, as we speak now, you cannot single out SARS officers from the general extortion going on. They collect as much as N100,000 from citizens.
“These acts go against the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, these police officers now indulge in massive extortion the criminal justice act outlawed.
“A young man who based at the Poland for 13 years, came to Nigeria and was accosted by the IGP X Squad at Koka/Ibusa Road, they took him to the Ibusa Police Station along the express of Asaba/Ogwashi-Uku and demanded that the man should transfer N10m to them.
“Eventually, we were contacted and we waded into the matter. We made a call to the commissioner of police, Inuwa and he advised us to go to the station and call him which we did. That was what save us, but they now reduced it to N500,000 as bail bond.
“It was that process they beat up the victim’s brother who is a fire service officer in Delta State. The DPO eventually came out on Thursday, March 12, 2020 and ended the matter. The whole trial was done under a mango tree and they compelled the victim to give his statement without the presence of anybody which is against the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015,” the petition stated.
The activist stressed that the actions violated the right of the victims’ dignity, freedom of movement, deprivation of liberty and privacy via searching of their phones without permit from a competent court of law.
He called on the relevant authority and the state government, as a matter of urgency to save Deltans.
PUNCH