THE Nigeria Police Force has invited social media personality, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), to provide evidence backing his claim that some police officers manning highway checkpoints pass information about travellers to kidnappers and bandits to facilitate abductions for ransom.
In a statement issued on Thursday, August 27, by the Force Public Relations Officer, Ani Iniedu, the police said the allegations were unsubstantiated and unfairly damaging to an institution responsible for protecting millions of Nigerians.
“The Nigeria Police Force hereby invites Mr. Martins Vincent Otse to produce, without delay, the evidence upon which he based these serious allegations, including any evidence that police personnel at checkpoints identify wealthy individuals and subsequently transmit information about them to kidnappers for the purpose of facilitating their abduction,” Iniedu said.
The ICIR reports that the invitation followed remarks by VDM during the 2026 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where his appearance as a panellist triggered debate over the role of social media activists in discussions on Nigeria’s worsening insecurity.
“We have a lot of checkpoints in Nigeria. police checkpoints…But then again, a lot of kidnappings, do you know why? When you pass with your car, you meet a checkpoint. When you meet the checkpoint, the policemen say, wind down, you wind down, open your boots, you open your boots.
“Believe you me, everybody knows who is rich and who is poor, and everybody knows the people that belong in the middle class. So, when you pass, they make those calls and say, the red Corolla, somebody is there that can pay. It’s not rocket science,” he said.
The police in its statement challenged VDM to produce evidence showing that officers at checkpoints identify wealthy travellers and subsequently transmit information about their identities or movements to criminal groups.
“The attention of the Nigeria Police Force has been drawn to comments made by Mr. Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as “VeryDarkMan (VDM),” at the recent Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Conference in Port Harcourt, in which he alleged that police officers manning checkpoints along major highways relay information to kidnappers and bandits regarding the identity and movement of travellers, thereby facilitating abductions for ransom,” the Force Public Relations Officer said, noting that any information provided would be treated with urgency and investigated.
While rejecting what it described as blanket accusations against the Force, Iniedu acknowledged that individual officers who compromise their duties would face disciplinary and legal consequences.
“The Nigeria Police Force firmly rejects these allegations as unsubstantiated and unfairly damaging to an institution entrusted with the protection of millions of Nigerians. Allegations of this gravity demand a corresponding standard of evidence, and that standard has not yet been met.
“Indeed, these same police officers routinely confront the very criminal elements alleged to be receiving such information. Police personnel have been ambushed, attacked and killed, while police stations, formations and operational assets have equally been targeted by terrorists, kidnappers and other violent criminals,” he said.
The Force said its personnel operate under difficult and dangerous conditions and pointed to attacks on police officers, stations and operational assets by terrorists, kidnappers and other criminal groups.
“The Nigeria Police Force is made up of hundreds of thousands of officers who report for duty daily under difficult, underfunded, and often dangerous conditions, many of them at checkpoints exposed to the very criminal elements they are trying to keep off our roads,” he added.
It maintained that criticism of security agencies is legitimate but argued that allegations of criminal complicity should be supported by evidence.
“Where individual officers are found to have compromised their duty, they will face the full weight of internal discipline and the law,” the statement said.
The ICIR reports that VDM’s appearance at the NBA conference had already become one of the event’s most talked-about issues after the association presented him with a special recognition award following his participation in a panel discussion. Many of his critics questioned how the NBA could invite a less-educated personality to one of its major events.
Responding to the criticism, VDM said he was not invited to teach lawyers about law but to contribute from his experience documenting insecurity and violence in Nigeria.
“There has been a lot of debate about why I was invited to this NBA conference. I’m not here to teach you people law; I’m here to share experience,” he said.
He also warned the lawyers that insecurity was no longer an issue affecting only ordinary Nigerians, pointing to attacks and kidnappings involving members of the judiciary.
“This is not a topic of ‘may I, my lord’ because your lords are being kidnapped,” he said, referring to the reported abduction of a judge travelling from Sokoto State who was kidnapped in Kebbi State in July and later released.
VDM used the platform to make a broader argument that Nigeria’s security crisis could not be addressed solely through official statements or conventional security approaches.
He alleged that security agencies possess information about criminal actors but have failed to act decisively against them.
The allegation was not left unanswered during the conference, as Silas Aremu, the Commissioner of Police in charge of Safer Highway, Department of Operations, Force Headquarters, Abuja, also spoke during the session and rejected the suggestion that police routinely collect information from motorists and hand it over to kidnappers.
Aremu acknowledged that checkpoints could potentially be abused by bad elements within the Force but disputed the claim that officers generally provide travellers’ information to criminal groups.
He instead argued that criminals sometimes monitor police checkpoints and exploit their locations and activities.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.