Police spokesman attacked over comment on why officers extort

By Chuks Uzochukwu 

Several Nigerians have taken to their social media handles to lambast the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force, Olumuyiwa Adejobi over his comment regarding why officers extort from young Nigerians. 

Adejobi had on Wednesday while responding to a post made by a user on X (formerly Twitter) handle @altruistglotv, said young Nigerians always get extorted by Police officers because their means of income are not genuine.

But many Nigerians who spoke to Society Mirror on this insisted that the officers have no right or justification to extort from anyone, instead, they should arrest and charge to court suspects of questionable means of income, as mandated by the law of the country. 

According to a student who simply identified himself as Coach said, “That Policeman (Adejobi) goofed by that statement. And if I were him, I will withdraw the statement immediately and apologise to Nigerians.”

A businessman said, “Extortion everywhere in the world is a crime and when officers of the law enforcement agency like the police are involved, for me, it is crime of first instance and should never be justified by anyone for whatever reason which is what in my opinion that Policeman is trying to do.”

“He (Adejobi) has not only confirmed to the world that the Nigeria Police are corrupt but went further to justify it thereby denting further the image of the police in the nation. 

“In a civilised society, such comment from a top ranked police officer like him can cost him his job. He has shown himself through that statement that as one of our problems.” Another man identified as Yusuf added.

Read other reactions below:

Recall that an individual reacted to a video of a young man on X, in company of his girlfriend, who was stopped, labelled a Yahoo boy and extorted by Police officers in Ilorin, Kwara State.

Commenting on the video, the individual called out the Police spokesperson for knowing about the extortion that takes place.

“Uniform shouldn’t be a symbol of war to citizens, your officers are criminals, the way they extort young guys instead of politicians is too much. You know about this, you see it and hear it everyday. We have families, we have parents,” the X user said.

In his response, Adejobi said only young people with ingenuine incomes get extorted and questioned why those harassed always go ahead to pay the officers.

He said that if such a person has a genuine income then there is no point paying the officers.

“Why do the young ones pay them? Someone who claims he doesn’t have work, he’s suffering, yet he pays 500k or 1m naira etc, how come?” Adejobi said.

“I guess they are birds of the same feather. If you are genuine, you earn your income from your work place, legit money, I dont think you would allow someone or some people to rob you of it. No way. My take.”