Arrest The arrest of the operatives was facilitated by Behind Bars Rights Initiative, BBRI, who trailed the policemen to Ekpan Police Station
SIX operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, F-SARS, have been arrested by the X-Squad from the Inspector General of Police for extorting N40,000 from two members of National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.
The operatives, who are being charged for misconduct and official corruption, were said to have, last Sunday, also demanded N300,000 from the NYSC members to bail their phones after they refused to give the security codes of their phones to the policemen.
The victims, who are twins, were on their way to their place of primary assignment in Warri from Abraka, when the operatives stopped their vehicles at Orerokpe, and allegedly insisted on checking their phones.
Arrest The arrest of the operatives was facilitated by Behind Bars Rights Initiative, BBRI, who trailed the policemen to Ekpan Police Station, where they were made to refund the N40,000 collected and subsequently arrested by X-Squad from the Inspector-General’s office. The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Andrew Aniamaka, could not be reached for comments, but the Director General of BBRI, Gwamnishu Harrison, confirmed the arrest of the officers, adding that they were transferred to the state police command headquar-ters, Asaba, on Tuesday for further investigation. Phones bail He said: “The policemen took the NYSC members to a fuel station along with others, and demanded N300,000 for both of them to bail their phones. “On searching their bags, the officers found N70,000 and collected N40,000 from the money, claiming the money was for the bailing of their phones. “Fortunately, the leader of the team gave his number to the victims and told them that with the payment of the N40,000, they have registered with them and if they are harassed by any SARS operative in the state, they should call him. “Armed with the mobile number, we asked one of the twins to call the officer that he is in Warri and would like them to hangout. He insisted that we come meet him at Ekpan Police Station. “We went there after contacting the IGP X-Squad, who arrested and transferred them to Asaba under the orders of the Delta State Officer in Charge of SARS, where they are currently being held for charges of misconduct and official corruption.”
