Three policemen attached to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF)’s Force Intelligence Department (FID) have extorted N750,000 from Aliyu Abba, a Kaduna State-based businessman.
Abba told FIJ that the policemen, identified as Gadzama, Sunday Aboji and Matthew Abu, took the sum from him in three instalments of N500,000, N100,000 and N150,000 on June 16, June 19 and June 25, respectively.
Despite the extortion, the policemen made another N500,000 demand and threatened to arrest him if he failed to obey their instructions. It wouldn’t be the first time they would be arresting Abba.
The businessman’s path crossed with the policemen for the first time on June 16 when he got into Abuja to honour an invitation bordering on a business transaction he had with Sajith Madhu, an Indian national who acted as an intermediary for Nostromo Trading Nigeria Ltd.
Abba told FIJ that he and Madhu engaged in transactions running into hundreds of millions of naira. He supplied soybeans, ginger and other farm produce to Madhu, but things went sour in 2023 when the company began auditing the Indian.
“Madhu came to me and started making allegations because money was missing,” Abba told FIJ.
“He claimed I owed him goods, but when we went over the records, we found that I was not owing him anything. He is even owing me about N7 million.
“What he then did was he got a DSS official, Ibrahim Bello, to forge a contract stating I was owing him over N66 million, and would give him N45 million worth of goods. They even added my signature to it.”
Bello then drafted another agreement on January 23, 2024, stating that he must endorse all future contracts between Madhu and Abba.
This new contract had the DSS’ seal on it and had the word ‘Restricted’ inscribed on it.
On several occasions, FIJ called Bello to respond to claims of forgery, but he did not answer the calls.
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When Abba met with the police in June, he said he had gone to court to file a case against Madhu.
“The police did not care about any court order,” Abba explained.
“When I got there on June 16, they asked me questions, and I responded with all the documents I had. Most of them agreed I had no case to answer, but Gadzama, who is the personal assistant to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) there, was insisting I had a case.
“That day, they made me transfer N500,000 to an account they provided. Subsequently, I went to the station to keep answering their questions, and they then collected more money from me into two other accounts.”
On Tuesday, Abba petitioned the FID and IGP offices to probe the policemen’s conduct.
FIJ called the FID Public Relations Office on Wednesday. They pledged to investigate the matter.
The post Greedy FID Policemen Extort N750,000 From ‘Falsely Accused’ Kaduna Businessman, Ask for More appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.