Police: How four officers stole N43m from suspect

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) says it has suspended four officers for allegedly stealing N43.1 million from a suspect arrested over “cash smuggling”.

The officers are Peter Ejike, a lawyer in charge of zone 7 legal section; Ekende Edwin, an inspector; Talabi Kayode, a sergeant; and Esther Okafor, an inspector.

All the officers are attached to the zone 7 headquarters  in Abuja.

In a statement on Wednesday, Muyiwa Adejobi, force spokesperson, said the officers “unlawfully arrested” one Andrew Ejah, an employee of FATFAD Cargo Nigeria Limited, who was conveying the cash sum of N74,950,000 on behalf of clients.

Adejobi said the officers detained Ejah at the zone 7 headquarters and “deliberately misrepresented the recovered amount as N31,790,000”.

The force spokesperson said the officers demanded a percentage from the fund after being contacted by the owners of the money to suppress the case.

“Outraged by their actions, the money owners petitioned the force headquarters, Abuja and the matter was directed to the IGP monitoring unit for investigation,” the statement reads.

“During the process, the cash sum of N31,790,000 was recovered from the officers, who claimed that it was the total money recovered from Andrew Ejah during his arrest.

“After intense investigations and a series of trials before duly constituted disciplinary panels, it was discovered that the officers took photographs of the suspect and the sacks of monies at the point of arrest but claimed the phone they used was damaged and subsequently lost, in an attempt to conceal their misconduct.

“However, forensic intelligence showed that this group of officers conspired and stole part of the money, amounting to N43,160,000, and tasked one of them to move the cash out of the FCT for hiding pending when the heat blows over.

“They thereafter resorted to several tricks and gimmicks in order to cover their tracks. One of which is the spread of this false narrative and misinformation to several online blogs and newspaper platforms.

“These officers have been suspended, being found culpable of serious misconduct, tampering with exhibits, abuse of office, corrupt practice, illegal duty, and acts unbecoming of a police officer.

“The movement of such an amount of money by the alleged cargo company could have been investigated and handled professionally by the police, but the officers were carried away by greed and therefore acted criminally and unprofessionally.”

Adejobi said Kayode Egbetokun, inspector-general of police, is not shielding any cartel accused of smuggling suspicious new banknotes from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).