The Police have started investigations on the allegations laid against some officials who have been accused of professional misconduct, abuse of the office and extortion of ₦22m worth of Bitcoin from two Realtors in Lagos State.
Frank Mba, The Force Public Relations Officer, in a formal announcement on Monday, stated that, the IG has set up a Special Investigation Panel, to investigate the allegations.
Morakinyo Peter and Yusuf Dayo who reside in Lagos, had narrated in a petition how the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Cordelia Nwanue and some officers in the Force Criminal Investigation Department Annex, Alagbon Close, Lagos State, allegedly extorted the money from them and threatened to kill them as well.
The Bitcoin realtors gave a narration of how they were driving along the Ikoyi-Ajah Expressway, on the 14th of July 2021, when a team of Police Officers on mufti, put them on a halt and demanded for their phones and since they were sure to have nothing incriminating on their phones, they handed the phones to them.
After which the Officers, ordered them to drive to their station. But, In astonishment, the Petitioners insisted on knowing what offence they have committed for the cause of being ordered to move to their Office. In response to their request, they were beaten and accused of being fraudsters.
In their defense, they claim to have pleaded innocent of the accusation and went ahead to given them the prove of their identity cards that clearly stated that, they were realtors, and to convince them further, they showed them some of their ongoing projects but the Officers wouldn’t have any of that. They insisted that, they were fraudsters who deserve to be apprehended.
In their Petition, they stated that, “Since we had 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 offences before we would move down to the Station.
“But the Officers descended on us and beat us for disobedience. They claimed we were too fresh not to be fraudsters. We begged them and gave them our identity cards and showed them that we were realtors. We gave them our identity cards and showed them some of our ongoing projects, but they insisted we were fraudsters.”
As a result of this Petition, today, Tuesday 21, December, Nwanue and the other Police Officers were ordered to report to the Senior Inspector of Police (SIP) Force Headquarters, Abuja.
The Statement said, The Force advises any member of the Public who has had similar experiences of high-handedness or extortion by the Officer in question, her team and any other officer at the FCID, Alagbon to come forward with detailed information to enable the panel to achieve a holistic investigation.”
The Panel was headed by a pioneer investigator at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, DSP Olaolu Adegbite.
