Policemen at the Delta State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) have extorted N10,000 from Obinna Ezeifeka, a Delta resident who applied for a police character certificate (PCC).
Ezeifeka visited the state police command on Thursday to meet with Bright Edafe, the spokesman for the police in the state, but he met a man who identified himself as Edafe’s deputy.
There, the resident relayed how he had paid a statutory N30,000 fee online for the document and proceeded to the SCID on Wednesday to have his biometrics captured, but an officer demanded a N30,000 payment to run his prints.
He told FIJ he narrated his experience to this man, explaining how he could not get the document because the SCID staff was unwilling to budge on her monetary demand.
READ MORE: Delta Police Deny Man PCC, Demand Illegal N30,000
“All the deputy began doing was to tell me that they were doing their best to curb the excesses in the police, but I ended up paying an extra N10,000,” Ezeifeka told FIJ.
“He called the people doing the capturing at the SCID, and said they would collect N10,000. The person even admitted on the phone that the money does not go to the government’s purse.
“Earlier, I had called the Police Specialised Services Automation Project (POSSAP) customer care line, and they kept insisting I should not pay anything, but they did nothing to help me. This deputy insisted I go back to the SCID and pay the N10,000 like that.”
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Ezeifeka returned to the SCID on Thursday afternoon for his biometric capture and ended up parting with the sum.
After the experience, he told FIJ, “The POSSAP leaves room for police extortion to happen.”
FIJ earlier reported that the police command promised to follow up on the extortion attempt, but with Thursday’s development, while the command and POSSAP remain aware of the trend, neither entity has done much to curb it.
There have been past reports on several cases of police extortion of PCC applicants.
On Friday morning, FIJ called Edafe but he did not answer the calls. At press time, he had not responded to a text message sent to him.
The post With Command’s Involvement, Delta SCID Extorted N10,000 From Resident for PCC appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.