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Police Ask Family To Pay Officers’ Flight And Accommodation To Investigate A Case of Abducted Person

November 4, 2020

A family member, who chose to speak anonymously for fear of the case being scuttled, said they had been asked to pay for the flight and accommodation of the officers.

Family members of a man, who was abducted by the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad earlier in the year, have raised the alarm over N800,000 being demanded from them as mobilisation for police officers from the Criminal Investigation Department in Abuja to come down to Southern Nigeria to look into the matter.

A family member, who chose to speak anonymously for fear of the case being scuttled, said they had been asked to pay for the flight and accommodation of the officers.

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SaharaReporters learnt that the victim was abducted when his son was just six months old.

Since his abduction, SARS officials in the state where he was kidnapped had refused to cooperate with officials from the police complaint response unit to release the victim or his corpse to the family.

“We have been protesting like everyone for them to end SARS,” one of the relatives of the victim said. 

“We went to the Government House today. Before the protest started, FCID Abuja agreed to send some officials to come and investigate the case. We are going to pay for their flight and accommodation. It’s more than N700,000, almost N800,000.”

According to the relative, the head of the police complaint response unit, Marcus Basiran, had during the height of the EndSARS protest, indicated on Twitter that the case would be reopened.

The unit went silent on the family for several months after it failed to receive the cooperation of SARS officials.

Mobilising the police to do their work has become commonplace in Nigeria.

Following the rape of Omozua in Edo State, reports emerged that the police asked the parents of the victim to bring some money for petrol for their vehicle.

A former police commissioner, Felix Ogbaudu said in a radio monitored programme that the underfunding of the force in recent years has meant that its personnel struggle to carry out assignments.

According to him, personnel on inter-state duty were once mobilised for extra days to avoid any compromise.