Seven former police officers who were detained on November 8, 2022, at around 1300 hours in a bank in Umuahia, Abia State, while carrying out illegal tasks outside of their purview and conspiring to extort money from an innocent victim have been dismissed by the Imo State Police Command and charged in court.
The ex-policemen were charged in Magistrate Court, Owerri, with Charge Sheet No. OW/746C/2022 after being charged defaulted, tried, and found guilty of the charges brought against them.
The ex-service members were identified as F/No. 462315 Sgt. Ohakim Chibuzo, F/No. 505455 Sgt. Irome Finian, F/No. 505592 Sgt. George Osueke, F/No. 511966 Cpl. Kelechi Onuegbu, and F/No. 512320 Cpl. in a statement released by Michael Abattam Police Public Relations on Thursday.
For the offenses of Discreditable Conduct, Corrupt Practices, and Leaving Beat, Nwagoro Isdore, F/No. 528165 PC Nwadike Stephen, and F/No. 528156 PC Ihemtuge Plastidus were also expelled.
The declaration reads, “Sequel to the inundation of the office of the Commissioner of Police with series of reports/complaints by members of the public on Police brutality, harassments, extortion, illegal checking of phones and flagrant disobedience to the Inspector-General of Police directives on extortion and incivility to members of the public, the Imo State Police
“It will be recalled, that the ex-policemen were arrested on 08/11/2022 at about 1300hrs, in a bank at Umuahia, Abia State, in the course of performing illegal duty outside their jurisdiction and conspiracy to extort money from an innocent victim. They were defaulted, tried and found guilty of the charges levelled against them, thus were summarily dismissed and charged to Magistrate Court, Owerri with Charge Sheet Number: No. OW/746C/2022.
“Consequently, the Commissioner of Police has directed all Area Commanders, Heads of Departments (HODs), Divisional Police Officers (DPO) and Tactical Teams Commanders of the various units in the Command to ensure their subordinates are warned against indulging in these sharp practices as any Police Officer found complicit will be made to face disciplinary actions. ”
In order to prevent any unprofessional behavior by police officers, he gave orders to the officers in charge of the Inspector-General of Police X-Squad Unit and the Commissioner of Police Monitoring Unit to start high-level monitoring of the police officers both inside and outside the city.
He also urged the officers and men to carry out their duties in a professional manner and in accordance with international best practices.
In order to avoid offenses that could result in legal action, he urged members of the public to always act appropriately when they interact with police officers. He also advised them to call the Command’s emergency control room numbers in an emergency.
