Policemen Kidnapped Me At Night, Beat Me & Stole My ₦444k In Rivers – Man

Nigerian man has recounted a terrifying ordeal in the hands of police operatives in Rivers State, where he was assaulted, handcuffed, beaten mercilessly and forced to transfer N444,000 from his bank account before his car was ransacked.

The victim, who wished not to be named because he feared his mother would see the story and break down in tears, said the incident happened in the early hours of yesterday morning after he drove out of his estate to buy fuel for his car and generator. He explained that power outage and intense heat left him with no choice but to head out around midnight.

“Few weeks ago I felt the prompt to make a post about the Nigerian police officers on the road harassing drivers especially when they see you’re a young boy boom they would label you yahoo boy and start demanding money but I waved it off and didn’t post,” he wrote in a social media post that has now gone viral.

According to his account, he got fuel from a 24-hour filling station and was driving back home when he noticed a checkpoint at a junction close to his house. The officers flagged him down, demanded his papers which he provided, and were about to let him go when they suddenly accused him of driving a stolen vehicle.

“One of the officers slapped me twice cos I was trying to explain,” he said. They brought out two different handcuffs, cuffed his hands, pushed him into a blue Sienna bus and seized his car keys. One officer drove his car away while he was bundled into their vehicle.

The next place he found himself was Atali town in Igbo-Etche. There, the officers searched his phone and saw only iPhones with nothing incriminating. They then demanded access to his bank account. When he hesitated, they started beating him mercilessly until blood gushed out. In pain, he opened the account and they transferred N444,000 to a POS operator.

NaijaChoice News reports that the officers later drove him back to Obiri-Ikwerre flyover, dumped him there, handed back his car keys and sped off. When he checked his vehicle, all the cash inside and other valuable items had been stolen.

This latest case fits into a disturbing pattern of police harassment and extortion targeting young Nigerian men at checkpoints, especially in Rivers State and along routes like Owerri-Port Harcourt. Many motorists have repeatedly complained that officers profile clean-looking young drivers as “yahoo boys” and use it as excuse to extort money.

A special investigation by Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) years ago already exposed how police at highway checkpoints maltreat and extort young men simply for owning good phones or cars. Despite the disbandment of SARS after the 2020 #EndSARS protests, reports of similar brutality, slapping, illegal detention and forced transfers continue across the country.

Rivers residents have been raising alarm over rising cases of police extortion at illegal checkpoints, with many describing the Obiri-Ikwerre and Etche axis as hotspots. Victims often stay silent out of fear, exactly as this young man almost did to protect his mother from worry.

The victim ended his post with a simple cry: “This is cruelty melted down on me.”

The Rivers State Police Command is yet to issue any statement on the allegation. Human rights groups and concerned Nigerians are calling for immediate investigation and punishment of the officers involved so that such cruelty does not continue unchecked.