Policemen torture students and take N20,000 bribe from him

 A 300-level student of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Princewill Jumbo, and his friends were returning to Port Harcourt from a burial in the Buguma area of the state on Saturday, when they were arrested. 

The friends are Iyoyo Soberekon, Charles Benjamin, Julius Abazie and Franklin Ordu, who is said to be a final year student of the institution. 

According to Punch Metro, the victims were arrested by the Anti-Cultism Squad of the state police command at a park in Buguma, where they wanted to board a bus en route to their residence in Port Harcourt around 5pm on that day. 

It was gathered that the chairman of a motorcycle riders’ association had called the policemen on the telephone after an argument ensued between the victims and one of the riders who conveyed them to the park. 

The police team, numbering about six, were said to have whisked away the five friends to their station on the ground that they were cult members. Princewill, who spoke on the telephone with our correspondent on Tuesday, said the operatives undressed him and his friends and beat them with sides of cutlasses. 

It was learnt that the victims, except Ordu who is still in custody as of the time of filing this report, were released on Monday. Princewill said, “Franklin (Ordu) gave the rider 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. Twenty two-year-old Princewill said he was in pains, urging that the policemen, who assaulted them, should be brought to book. “I don’t know their names but I can recognise them,” he added. His father, Mr. Progress Jumbo, said, he parted with N20,000 because the policemen threatened to implicate Princewill. The Rivers State Police spokesperson, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, urged the victims to come to his office for identification(policeme)