Adegoke Openiyi (not real name), a Lagos-based real estate contractor, has accused Valentine Ebenezer, a policeman, of extorting N30,000 from him to investigate a case.
Openiyi wrote to FIJ lamenting over how the policeman attached to the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Annexe, forced his way into handling three cases he reported to the department, and then began making monetary demands.
In March, the contractor first petitioned the department and Ebenezer got assigned to the case. That month, he sent N10,000 cash via courier to the policeman.
This courier then went to the administrative department to submit three more petitions that the contractor had written, but Ebenezer followed him and took possession of those petitions, defeating the contractor’s aim of having other inspectors work the cases. After this, more monetary demands followed.
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On the phone with FIJ, Openiyi said, “The day we gave him the form, we submitted three other ones different from the one we gave to him. The admin was supposed to assign to whoever would handle it.
“Ebenezer collected the money, then followed the dispatch to the admin to collect the three other petitions.
“We later suspected Ebenezer was compromising the case with the suspects and delaying the process. At a point, he said he invited some of them. He gave us excuses. We felt he was compromised, and he was requesting documents from us instead of investigating.
“He was trying to get the evidence from us. That’s why we wrote to them to reassign the case.
“When he demanded money from us, he didn’t state the amount, but we sent him N20,000 to his bank account.”
This, the policeman said, was not enough.
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WhatsApp chats between Openiyi and Ebenezer show the policeman saying, “This 20k is not okay at all for the mobilisation, sir.”
When FIJ asked if he reported Ebenezer’s conduct, Openiyi said, “We petitioned them on July 15, they received it on July 16. At this moment, the police have not said anything to us yet.”
FIJ called Ebenezer on Saturday but he did not answer the phone calls. He had not responded at press time. FIJ also called Aminat Mayegun, FCID Annex’s Public Reations Officer.
Mayegun asked FIJ to send the details to her via WhatsApp.
FIJ sent the complaints to Mayegun via the micro-messaging platform. She had yet to provide a response at press time.
The post FCID Cop Valentine Ebenezer Collects N30,000 Before Investigating Case, Says ‘It’s Not Enough’ appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.