KENYAN Police authorities on Friday reportedly arrested some officers notorious for the abduction, assault and extortion of foreign nationals in the country and framing them up with drug charges.
One of the Police officers identified as Corporal Diba had been accused of extorting $850 from a Nigerian named Emmanuel after abducting him on June 11, 2022. Emmanuel was abducted at gunpoint alongside another Nigerian identified as Anthony Anamonye.
The corporal reportedly confiscated their passports and detained them under harsh conditions.
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Diba and his team were accused of also planting drugs in the apartments of their victims after the abduction to extort huge amounts of money from the foreigners by threatening them with a jail term or deportation.
In a report published by SaharaReporters, the officers were alleged to have demanded the sum of $3,000 from the two Nigerian citizens, but unfortunately, his request was turned down, before whisking them away in a government vehicle to Anamonye’s residence.
After searching the house of the young Nigerian without a search warrant, and finding nothing incriminating, the officers became furious and consequently drove the two Nigerians to the Police Station in Mtwapa town, Kilifi County, the newspaper reported.
“The two Nigerians were kept incommunicado under harsh treatment until one of them, Emmanuel, decided to pay a ransom of 850 US dollars before being released having spent over 24 hours in police custody” the report said.
However, Anamonye refused to pay the ransom and was released after two days under the pretext of a cash bail of 30,000 KSH through the intervention of a lawyer and went on to petition the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), who intervened and got his money refunded.
Feeling dissatisfied with the manner in which the IPOA initially handled the complaints, and given the fact that the IPOA willingly concealed the identity of four officers who had assaulted him to a state of coma while in detention, Anamonye sought legal relief.
Following his petition to a Federal High Court in Mombasa, the IPOA made a recommendation to the National Police Service to have the rogue officers investigated, which led to interdiction and the case had been scheduled for mention on the 31st day of January, 2023.