Police Chief Accused of Profiting from N2.4 Million Extortion by Rights Activist

A human rights activist in Delta State, Harrison Gwamnishu, has accused a police chief in the state of taking part in the sharing of N2,465,000 allegedly extorted from a Nigerian by a police officer in the state.

Fabian Ayameh, a superintendent of police and divisional police officer (DPO) in charge of Abraka, is accused of benefiting to the tune of N950,000 from the extorted money.

The extortion was allegedly carried out by Ishaku Attah, a divisional crime officer (DCO) in the division.

Mr Gwamnishu had in a post on X drawn the attention of the police authorities to the alleged extortion by Mr Attah, which the police investigated, recovered the money and returned it to the victim.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Abiniwonda Olufemi, last Wednesday, removed Mr Attah as DCO in the Abraka division over the allegation, PREMIUM TIMES reported.

Two days later, Mr Gwamnishu again took to X, accusing the DPO of Abraka, Mr Ayameh, of benefiting from the extortion.

He posted on the microblogging platform the receipts of transactions from a POS agent that carried out the transactions.

“I have evidence that the DCO 2 and the DPO SP Fabian Ayameh both shared the N2,465,000 extorted from a victim.

“The POS agent transferred this money into the account of DCO2 & DPO SP Fabian Ayameh.

“Aside from the cash collected. The DPO received in his First Bank account the total sum of N950,000 (N750,000 and N200,000),” Mr Gwamnishu wrote.

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He challenged Mr Ayameh to make public his account statement.

“The removed DCO 2 SP Ishaku Attah received into his First Bank account the total sum of N1,049,000 (N929,000 & N120,000),” he said.

The police spokesperson in the state, Bright Edafe, when contacted on the allegation against Mr Ayameh, said the case is currently under investigation at the State Criminal Investigation Department.

He promised to provide an update after the investigation.

Mr Gwanmnishu had last month drawn the attention of the police in Rivers State to the extortion of $3,000 by three officers in the state, an allegation the command after investigation recommended the three officers for dismissal.