A taxi driver, Umo Friday, has accused police officers from the Choba Division in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, Rivers State, of assaulting him after he refused to give them a N100 bribe.
Friday, a father of four, recounted to our reporter on Thursday that the officers attacked him, broke his car’s side mirror, and threatened to shoot him along the NTA area of Ozuoba just as he was about to finish his day’s work on Wednesday evening.
The distressed driver explained that he had picked up three stranded passengers—two women and a man—who were unable to find transport from the Obiri-Kwere area to Ozuoba, when he encountered the police officers around 7 pm.
He said, “The passengers were stranded, so I decided to help them. As we approached the police checkpoint after AIT in Ozuoba, the officers asked me for N100. I explained that I wasn’t charging the passengers, but they insisted. One officer told me to park, and before I knew it, they broke my car’s side mirror and attacked me. I got out and demanded they fix my mirror.”
He continued, “The road got blocked, and a crowd gathered. Some of their colleagues were upset with them and started pleading on their behalf.”
Friday said the officers, who he identified as being from the Area Command in Choba, even threatened to shoot him at one point. He called on the police authorities to caution their officers on stop-and-search duties, describing their treatment of citizens as unfair.
Efforts to reach Grace Iringe-Koko, the spokesperson for the state police command, were unsuccessful as her phone line was busy for an extended period, and she had not responded to a text message at the time of filing this report.