A security guard working with RHODS safety and security services in Rivers State, Benjamin Progress, has accused officers of the Nigeria Police Force of extorting money from him during a stop-and-search operation in Port-Harcourt.
Benjamin told newsmen that he was going to his security post on Wednesday, 16th of April, 2025 when he was stopped in front of the Salvation Ministries Satellite church.
According to him, despite complying with their search and presenting his identification, the officers forced him into the back of their car and took him to an unknown place requesting for N3million.
He said he was treated like criminals and forced to use a Point of Sale machine (POS) to transfer N200,000 later to a Monie Point account number 5681823745 owned by “POS OPERATOR” whose business address is at Old G.R.A, Port Harcourt.
According to Benjamin, the money extorted from him was part of his savings to take his paralysed mother, suffering from stroke to a Physiotherapist.
“I was robbed by the men of the Nigeria Police Force. I’m a security guard under RHODS safety and security services, a security team owned by Rtd NAVY Commodore Ogechi Osuagwu. I was on my way to my security post on the 16th April Wednesday, 2025 when the men of the Nigerian Police force flagged my keke to park.
“I thought maybe it was a stop and search as usual, so I came down and opened my school bag that contained my security face cap and power bank for them to search. But to my dismay, they refused to search me at all and insisted I enter their tinted glass hilux. I looked around, this is a normal checkpoint where police collect money from keke and bus riders but this is not the team that does that.
“I asked them why I was being asked to come with them to their vehicle when I’ve committed no offence and I’m just a security guard. They started tossing me about like a thief, threatening to deal with me if I don’t comply immediately to follow them to their office. On hearing that it was the police station I was being taken to, I said to myself, better off, when I get to their station, I’ll explain that I’m innocent to the officers at the station.
“This was at Salvation Ministries Satellite church, located along the road between Elioparanwo Big tree and Gateway International church, Ada George. However, they drove me down to G.R.A, to a particular POS location in the lonely road. There, they asked me to give them N3million for them to set me free, I looked around thinking to myself ‘thought they said I was being taken to the office? Where would I get 3million from? What’s my offence?’
“I explained to them once again that I’m only a security guard and my mom is at home sick of stroke and paralysed. The money I make is only to help myself and my family. They said I wasn’t serious and seemed like I wanted my mom to come searching for me whilst suffering from stroke. This was a scary statement as I didn’t know what they meant by that to be exact, I said let me make a call but they seized my phone to not make any phone calls.
“They checked my account and all I had was NGN150,000 so they said they needed NGN200,000 as a pity price to set me free. Set me free from what exactly I thought? I said okay ‘If I’m suspected to be into fraud let them check my phone’ to which they responded that the government has instructed them not to search phones but they’ll go and lock me up at the EFCC station and hand me to them to do with me whatever they wish.
“At this point they said I should call someone to borrow me extra NGN50,000 to add to the NGN150,000 I already had to round off to NGN200,000. They monitored whom I was calling very closely and I called a friend, he lent me the money. I made the transfer which they insisted I added NGN5,000 charge but since they checked and saw that I I had no money left, they asked the POS guy to deduct NGN5,000 and give them NGN195,000.
Nigerian Policemen Forcefully Take Man’s N200,000 Meant To Treat Paralysed Mum In Port-Harcourt
“Then they drove me to somewhere along Presidential/Rumuola road and dropped me off to go. I now have severe PTSD coupled with the fact that the men of the Nigerian Police Force has just robbed me off my hard earned savings I made from my security job taking me back to square zero in these hard times.
“The money they took from me was part of my savings to use and treat my mother. It’s meant to pay a Physiotherapist, a he’s paralysed with stroke. Now they took everything away from me.”
