Policemen torture students, take N20,000 bribe

The incident happened when one Princewill Jumbo, a 300-level student of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, and his friends, Iyoyo Soberekon, Charles Benjamin, Julius Abazie and Franklin Ordu, were returning to Port Harcourt from a burial on Saturday.

They're arrested by the Anti-Cultism Squad of the state police command at a park in Buguma, where they wanted to board a bus. Narrating what happened, Princewill said, “Franklin (Ordu) gave the rider, that brought us to the park, N500 and requested N300 change, but the rider said he did not have change.
His co-riders volunteered to split it but he refused. He said Franklin must find N200. That was how the argument started. As we were arguing, a man, who called himself the park manager, wanted to slap Franklin. We cautioned him and the next thing he did was to call the policemen on the telephone that cult members were disturbing the community.
The policemen removed our clothes. We were left with only our boxers. They told us to lie on the floor and they started flogging us with the sides of cutlasses. When the beating persisted Franklin told them that he was a cultist.
Inside the cell, there is a 13-year-old boy, called Small. He told us he was arrested a few weeks ago around his house in Abonima and that his family members were not aware that he was in police custody. Others we met there said they were just picked on the roads.”
Princewill's father, Mr. Progress Jumbo, said, “The policemen asked me to pay N20,000 or else they would send a letter to my son’s school that he was a cult member. That was the threat they used to extort the money from me."
Princewill’s sister, Mrs. Peace Asoka, said, “The authorities need to know about this incident so that the police can stop harassing innocent persons. They collected N2,000 from me before I was allowed to see my brother in the cell.”
It was learnt that the victims have been released, except Ordu. The Rivers State Police spokesperson, Nnamdi Omoni, urged the victims to come to his office for the identification of the policemen involved in the alleged assault. Crdt: Punchng