A man identified as Solomon Buchi has narrated how he was kidnapped alongside his younger brother by men suspected to be operatives of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police.
Buchi, who narrated this on Twitter, said the incident happened in Wuse 2 on Monday.
According to him, hardly had they left Kilimanjaro at Ruby Center (with a Bolt vehicle) where they had gone to eat when gun-wielding uniformed men violently stopped the vehicle and dragged them (except the Bolt driver) into a waiting car, which was not a Police vehicle.
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“On getting in, they asked where we were from. I stated that we are Igbos from Imo State and they immediately said that we are members of IPOB. They squeezed us into their car, and they were five policemen. They started harassing us and, at this point, I had a severe panic attack,” he said.
“I asked them to give me water to take my meds(thankfully, I was with it) and they asked what I do for a living. I told them I’m a writer, and they stated that I’m a ‘Yahoo boy.’ They said we should get ready to get to the station, and I told them that I wanted to call my lawyer.
“They were furious. They asked if I’m based in Abuja, I told them I came for the holiday and they asked where I stay and how much I am paying. I told them I stay at a short-let apartment and they ransacked my phone and saw the convo with my manager and saw how much I paid.
“They asked how I could afford such amount of money. All these while, they had taken us to outskirts of Abuja. They handcuffed us and pushed us into the boot. I nearly choked because I am claustrophobic and I had to take double dose of my meds.”
After a journey that lasted several hours outside the FCT, the men stopped at an undisclosed location and asked them to open their banks’ mobile applications, he said.
Buchi said while he was specifically told to bring N1.5 million, his younger brother was accused of internet fraud, popularly known as ‘Yahoo, Yahoo,’ because of the cryptocurrency transactions they saw while searching his phone.
“They forced us to open our bank apps, and told me to bring N1.5m. I was already having severe panic attacks and needed to take my other meds at home. I told them I didn’t have that amount of money.
“They took our ATMs and withdrew 500,000 Naira out of 617,000 that I had in my account. They withdrew my kid brother’s 50K. I begged them that it was my upkeep money for my stay but they went physical on me, slapped me and asked me to use the 117K for myself.”
Buchi stated that they were driven back to the FCT from where one of the policemen took off his uniform before going to a nearby POS operator to withdraw N550,000 from their accounts.
“They also wanted to transfer our crypto. Man, I can’t even talk. I’m traumatised. After everything, they drove us back to town, Utako, where I stay.
“They looked for a dark place, unlocked the handcuffs and gave us our phones and cards. They took my new AirPods and valuables. This wasn’t the plan at all. I felt so invaded and highly abused.”
When contacted, the FCT Police Spokesperson Josephine Adeh said she had just heard about the incident from this reporter.
She asked the victims to formally report the incident to the FCT Police Command for immediate action.
You can reach out to me on Twitter via: vincent_ufuoma