Man accuses Rivers policemen of N5 million extortion
A resident of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has accused the police of extorting more than N5 million (3,120.071 USDT) from him on Friday.
The victim, who posted details of the incident on the handle @SerrDavee on X (formerly Twitter), said the officers stopped his Bolt ride, assaulted him, and forced him to transfer cryptocurrency funds from his Trust Wallet app before converting them to naira and withdrawing the cash through several point-of-sale operators. Receipts of the transactions were attached to his posts.
“Men of the Nigerian police force just extorted over 5M naira from me,” he wrote. “They stopped my Bolt ride on my way to get food—dragged me out of the vehicle—began beating me—forced me into their mini bus vehicle with no plate number.”
The X user alleged that the officers, dressed in plain black tactical gear without nametags, handcuffed him and repeatedly beat him with their weapons. “I was hit on the neck with their gun and it is currently swollen,” he said.
According to him, the officers accessed his phone by force, navigated to his Trust Wallet, and compelled him to liquidate over $3,000 worth of cryptocurrency into naira. He said the money was then withdrawn at multiple POS outlets in Port Harcourt, with his Bolt driver and the POS operators serving as witnesses.
“They did not want to hear anything—they beat me to a pulp—handcuffed me & drove me outside my city,” the victim said, adding that the five-man team claimed to have come from Bayelsa State.
He described them as “delinquents of men we call ‘men in black’” who operated outside standard police procedure.
The victim linked his ordeal to the broader culture of police abuse that triggered the #EndSARS protests of 2020, saying logic could not be applied when dealing with rogue officers.
“These people are criminals… It’s the reason the ENDSARS protests were held,” he wrote.
“I hate this country & will do all I can to leave here,” he added, expressing frustration over what he described as recurring cases of young people being brutalised by security agents.
As of Saturday morning, calls made to the mobile of the Rivers State police command’s spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko, rang out unanswered.
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