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).
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