Ifeanyichukwu Richard, a final-year student at the Enugu State University of Technology, has narrated to FIJ how an official of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) extorted the sum of N35,000 from him at the Seme border while returning to Nigeria from Ivory Coast.
Richard left the Ivory Coast for Nigeria on July 24. He had gone there to learn a trade from his brother and was heading to Nigeria when he had an ugly encounter with an official of the NCS along the Seme Border.
He told FIJ that he had boarded a taxi to convey him to Mazamaza in Lagos, where he would board a bus heading to Enugu.
“There were three of us in the vehicle. When we got to the fifth checkpoint along the Seme border, a Customs official ordered the driver to halt and began asking me and the other passengers some questions,” Richard told FIJ.
“I told him I was a student and he asked for my school ID card, but I was not with it then. The other passenger, who is also a student, showed the Customs official a copy of his admission letter and was let go. I was ushered into a structure where I presume they sleep.
“He asked me if I worked and made some signs with his fingers to describe typing on a laptop. He also asked what I went to do in Ivory Coast and I said I went to learn the bureau de change trade from my brother so I can establish my business after my final exams.”
Richard added that he was held and delayed at the checkpoint. The driver who had been waiting for Richard became impatient and drove off with the other passengers, leaving him behind.
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The Customs official, whom Richard described as a dark-complexioned man of average height and around 30 years old, searched him while threatening to detain him if he found anything incriminating in his possession, but he never found any.
He then asked to see his phone. When Richard handed his phone to the Customs official, he (the NCS official) checked Richard’s bank app and gallery.
Richard told FIJ that the customs official saw a receipt for the N200,000 his brother had sent him for his school fees, transport and other miscellaneous expenses.
“He threatened to slap me and take me to their office. Then he asked me how I could save myself. I told him there was nothing I could do. He asked me to pay N150,000 to secure my release. After pleading with him, he asked me to pay N35,000,” said Richard.
Receipt of the transaction.
The customs official gave him the account number of a POS agent whose account the N30,000 would be sent to. Out of duress, Richard sent the sum of N35,000 to Joy Yakubu, the POS agent. The customs official called her to confirm if she had received the payment. She did and Richard was released.
When FIJ first contacted Abdul Hussaini, the NCS Seme Area Command PRO, on Monday, he said the case would be investigated.
“Even though it is a one-sided story, we will investigate,” Hussaini told FIJ.
FIJ also offered him an opportunity to jump on a conference call with Richard so he could get more details to aid the investigation and he agreed.
He was not available for the call. On Tuesday, he said Richard should visit the Seme border on Wednesday.
“Please, tell the person to come to Seme tomorrow because from our findings, we could not identify any person,” he wrote in a text message to FIJ.
The post From N150,000 Customs Officer Extorts N35,000 from Student Using PoS Agent Joy Yakubu As Conduit appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.