(Picture used for illustration purpose)
Kingsley Ebuka, one of the victims who cried out over alleged incessant harassment and extortion from security operatives mounting roadblocks on the Onitsha-Owerri road, said that the policemen ordered each of the passengers to transfer as much as N350,000 to a POS account or be arrested and handed over to the anti-robbery squad.
Ebuka said that out of fear of being arrested, shot dead, or tagged as a criminal or an IPOB member, he had to transfer the N150,000 that was left in his bank account to the designated account.
He further said that some other passengers were already detained inside the White Hiace bus they were using, and they threatened to move them to SARS or SPACS for refusing to send a reasonable amount into the POS account.
As reported by The Punch News, the victim, Ebuka, said, "On alighting from the tricycle, in obedience to the order, the policemen ordered us to surrender our GSM phones to them for searching. On surrendering the handsets to them, the policemen ordered each of the passengers to transfer as much as N350,000 to a certain POS account or be arrested and handed over to either the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, or the Special Anti-Cults Squad, SPACS, for prosecution as common criminals."
He continued, "Out of fear of being whisked off and probably shot dead along the road and tagged a criminal or an IPOB member, I transferred the sum of N150,000 remaining in my bank account into the designated POS account given to us by the policemen before they handed my phone back to me and went after other passengers."