Usman Baba, the inspector-general police, has ordered an investigation into the allegation that officers attached to the force criminal investigation department (FCID), Alagbon, Lagos, extorted N22 million worth of Bitcoin from two residents.
Baba also constituted a probe panel to carry out a “discreet and transparent’ investigation” into the allegation.
In a statement on Monday, Frank Mba, force spokesperson, said the accused officers have been ordered to report to the police headquarters on Tuesday.
Two Lagos residents, Morakinyo Peter and Yusuf Dayo, had in a petition narrated how one DSP Cordelia Nwanue and other officers attached to the Force Criminal Investigation Department Annex, Alagbon Close, Lagos State, allegedly extorted the money from them after threatening to kill them.
The petitioners said they were driving on the Ikoyi-Ajah Expressway on July 14, 2021, when a team of police officers in mufti stopped them and demanded their phones.
They wrote;
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 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 were realtors. We gave them our identity cards and showed them some of our ongoing projects, but they insisted we were fraudsters.
Mba in the statement expressed;
This development has become imperative following the report making the rounds in the media alleging the involvement of the officers in the extortion of twenty-two million naira worth of Bitcoin from two young Nigerians, Morakinyo Tobiloba Peter and Yusuf Samson Dayo at gunpoint on July 14, 2021 while driving along the Ikoyi/Ajah Expressway, Lagos state. Consequently, 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.
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 or any other officer at the FCID Alagbon to come forward with detailed information to enable the panel to achieve a holistic investigation.
The special investigation panel is 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.
