Imo State Police command has dismissed seven officers found guilty of extortion and other corrupt practices.
In a statement signed by the command’s spokesperson, Michael Abattam in Owerri, the state capital, he said the officers were found guilty in an orderly room trial and had been charged to a magistrate court with number OW/746C/2022.
The dismissed officers are Sgt. Ohakim Chibuzo with F/No. 462315; Sgt. Irome Finian F/No. 505455; Sgt. George Osueke F/No. 505592; Cpl. Kelechi Onuegbu F/No. 511966; Cpl. Nwagoro Isdore F/No. 512320; PC Nwadike Stephen F/No. 528165 and PC Ihemtuge Plastidus F/No. 528156.
The ex-policemen were arrested on November 8, 2022 at about 1pm, in a bank at Umuahia, Abia State, in the course of performing what was described as illegal duty outside their jurisdiction and conspiracy to extort money from an innocent victim.
Abattam said the Imo State commissioner of police had been inundated with several complaints from the public on police brutality, harassments, extortion, illegal checking of phones and flagrant disobedience to the Inspector-General of Police directives on extortion and incivility to members of the public.
The police boss directed all area commanders, heads of departments, divisional police officers (DPOs) and tactical team commanders of the various units in the command to warn their subordinates against those practices.
The Imo police boss, Mohammed Ahmed Barde warned that any police officer found guilty will be made to face disciplinary actions.
Barde directed the officers in charge of the Inspector-General of Police X-Squad Unit and the command’s monitoring unit to commence high level monitoring of the police officers within and outside the metropolis in order to forestall any unprofessional conduct by police officers.