Some aggrieved youths have retrieved bribe allegedly collected by policemen at a checkpoint along Auchi-Aviele road in Edo State.
The policemen were at the checkpoint when the youths stormed there, accusing them of extorting motorists and cyclists.
In a video trending online, the civilians led by a man on short and armless shirt, confronted and searched the officers, including those bearing arms.
“Search this one,” the youth leader charged, while an armed policeman replied, “Nothing dey my body,” forcing a smile on his face.
“Hold on! Let them search youth,” a voice at the background said.
The policeman was seen raising up both hands as someone frisked him before giving a sign that nothing was found on the officer.
A policeman suspected to be leader of the team tried handing over his phone to the youth leader to speak with an unidentified person apparently to calm down the situation, but the youth leader objected, shouting, “I no wan talk!”
The officer made another attempt to hand over the phone to the youth leader, who got aggressive and hit his hand.
He later asked the policemen and officials of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) to leave the scene before he moved to a location where he addressed the public.
“Good evening my people! We were on Auchi-Aviele road and found vigilantes and policemen mounting roadblock here. We got information that they were extorting people so we decided to chase them from here. We found out that they had already collected N4,200 from bike men and others. I’m taking this money to the Area Commander.”
“To the Commissioner of Police, I want you to call the DPO of Agbede Police Station because his men who extorted passengers said they got order from the DPO. While the Vigilantes said their boss from Aviele sent them. They did not spend up to 30 minutes there before collecting N4,200 from road users. That means they could have raised like 80k or 100k if they spent more hours. Imagine collecting this amount from Nigerians who are suffering,” he said.
Daily Trust subjected several key frames of the video to verification using various open source intelligence tools and found no evidence of digital manipulation.
The incident has generated reactions from social media users, many of whom have called for an end to police extortion and the alleged collection of money from motorists at checkpoints.
(Daily Trust)
