Any armed police operative who extorts Nigerian is an armed robber, the Force spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, reiterated on Saturday.

Mr Adejobi said this in a post on X.

He was responding to a comment by an X user, Harry (@harrizone98) who reminded him of a similar comment he made last year regarding police extortion.

“Yes, this still stands,” Mr Adejobi said to Harry.

“Any armed policeman or security operative who forcefully extorts an innocent Nigerian is as good as an armed robber.

“Extortion is never part of any agency’s mandate, either armed or not. We condemn such, and even the IGP has made it clear. The IGP has warned officers not to drop his name to extort or dupe Nigerians and not to take any gift to him. We made an official statement to this effect,” Mr Adejobi said.

The force spokesperson, in tweet, June last year, had said that the police may be compelled to treat as armed robbers, their operatives “who are fond of taking innocent Nigerians to ATM, Banks or hidden arenas to forcefully extort them.”

Continuing, he had said: “By simple definition and interpretation of law, anyone who possesses firearms or offensive weapons and takes one’s property with element of force or violence is simply armed robbery, nothing more.

“We detest and condemn this development or action which is in total contravention of our rules and regulations, and ethics as a responsible institution.”

Mr Adejobi has been telling Nigerians lately to resist any officer who demands money as a condition for bail, but his message appeared to have irked some Nigerians on X who feel that the police authorities should do more to expose and sanction corrupt officers.

“My comment was clear enough. Must we continue to pay these erring policemen? Are we going to continue this way?” Mr Adejobi said in his latest comment on police extortion.

By Cletus Ukpong

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