Okonkwo, who narrated the ordeal, said the officers who found no incriminating items on them after searching them and their car, decided to illegally detain them for refusing to give N1.5 million bribe they demanded.
A Nigerian freelance journalist and actor, Somto Okonkwo, has lamented how he and his crew members were harassed and illegally detained from last Friday to Saturday by officers of the Imo State CID, Anti-Narcotics and Drug Unit in Owerri, Imo state capital.
Okonkwo, who narrated the ordeal, said the officers who found no incriminating items on them after searching them and their car, decided to illegally detain them for refusing to give N1.5 million bribe they demanded.
In a 13-minute, 52-second video, Okonkwo recounted the incident, stating that police officers stopped them while en route to the MTN office to recover a lost SIM card. Despite identifying himself as a journalist and member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), the officers reportedly demanded a N1.5 million bribe, alleging they were carrying counterfeit US dollars used as movie props.
He said, “Is the Nigeria police now kidnappers? The IG of police, I’m making this video and I’m calling you to inspect everything I’m saying because everything happened real.
“His Excellency Governor Hope Uzodinma, I know you know me and I cannot enter your state from Port Harcourt and I will be made useless for no reason because of police people.
“I was detained in a police station on October 11, 2024 and released on October 12, 2024 after a lot of loggerheads. I don’t come on video and start ranting but I have to speak out because of what I saw in State CID, Owerri, Imo State, especially the Anti-Narcotics and Drug Section.
“I came from Port Harcourt to Owerri to make a video. We have a movie we are shooting. Before, when we were making videos, we used real US dollars and real Nigerian Naira but because of security reasons, we were advised by our production to stop using real money, we should be using prop money, that is fake money used in videos so you will not disrespect currencies in videos.
“Then, when someone earns some money in our videos, we will make a wireless transfer of money to him/her instead of letting them go with our prop money.”
Okonkwo continued, “We were going to a location to shoot. From the location where we went to shoot, one of my crew members lost his phone and we decided to go to MTN office to retrieve his number so that someone would not pick the phone and use it to do rubbish.
“On the way at Yar'Adua Drive, World Bank, close to Everyday Supermarket, as we were going, a group of Anti-Narcotics and Drug Police stopped us and started searching our vehicle.
“I told them I’m a pressman and showed them my ID card. I’m also an actor. I work with the AGN (Actors Guild of Nigeria), and we were going to recover our SIM card that had just been lost so we could go back to our location. They insisted on searching us and I said, go ahead.
“They started searching me, two of my crew members and our car. They saw our props and saw the prop money, two bundles of prop money, which in all of those money, they wrote in the notes that this money is not to be used for purchase but for movie shoot only, written on all the money.
“The first thing the officer said was, ‘See money. You people have entered a big problem (wahala), you will pay and be tired’. I said what is the meaning of that? Pay until we are tired for what?
“They asked if I'm an AGN member and I said yes, they asked for my ID card for printing the money and I said I was not the one that actually printed the money. It is my producer that printed it and he has his ID card, he is registered and her platform is registered, and I have my own platforms with millions of subscribers and followers.
“I showed them videos we are using the money to do, that it is prop money but they said we must go to the station. They put us in their bus and parked our car at one corner. They kept us in their bus for over one hour. This was happening around to 2pm.
“I asked them what we did and they said we would find out. One came and met me, asked for my platform and I showed them my platform.
“In our presence there, some group of guys came there with a bike and they searched them and saw daggers, knives and different arms. They handcuffed them and put them with us.
“We asked them to let us go but they said we must go to the station or we settle them there. That if we go to the station, we will pay N1.5 million. For what? Allow me to call my producer to come with his ID card and proof this money and the rest of the money we have, they refused.
“I showed them my ID card again, I’m a pressman. They said I should give them my phones before I videoed them and posted online. I gave them my phones. I’m not a fraudster, I don’t do drugs. All I do is content creation; I do business and l also do movie acting.
“After the whole delay, they said we should settle them. That we should bribe them, else they would take us to the State CID Owerri, Anti-Narcotics and Drug section. We refused to bribe them and they took us there.
“We went there and they kept us on the floor. I asked them to release my crew members because I’m the one in possession of the US dollars prop money. Hold me if you want to hold me. Also, allow me to call my lawyer and my producer but they kept us at the counter for over one hour again.”
He said after keeping them till past 3pm, the police officers asked them to move to a cell, and when “I asked why we were being moved to the cell, they said we should go to the cell first and they would call us one after the other to make our statement”.
He continued, “We obeyed and went to the cell and they locked us up with the people they saw arms, a man they saw with a bag of drugs, while we are not criminals, why keeping us in the midst of people like this?
“They left us and went home without allowing us to write our statement or even call our families, production team or our lawyer. The IPO in charge of the case was IPO Mary. She stays at the left side of the office where she works under the officer in charge, Jude.
“I asked them to release my crew members because one of them has health issues but they left us there, no food. We were in Cell 12. One of my crew members who is asthmatic nearly died because there was no inhaler and they put mosquito coils and we were about 18 people inside the small cell.
“I was shouting that there was an emergency. I cried that they should do something because if the guy died, I would be held responsible but a policeman came and said that if he dies, they know what they will do with him.
“When it became worse, they came and brought him out and poured water on him and found an inhaler, revived the guy and still locked us again and we slept till the next morning and they did not allow us to call our family members. It was news that circulated that made my family know what was happening and they called the producer and my lawyer came.
“Calls from Abuja started coming in and they said we should pay N1.5 million, then brought it down to N300,000. My lawyer asked them for what and they said they bought an inhaler for my guy, that we should pay for the inhaler. We paid them N15,000 for the inhaler.
“After many calls came in and they tried to dodge by saying they were not on seat, they released us.
“In that cell, a lot of innocent people are there and they don’t allow them to call their families, their lawyers or anybody. They don’t even give them food.”
He called on the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun; Governor Hope Uzodimma and a blogger, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, for urgent intervention to save the innocent people being detained by the police personnel.
He alleged, “They get a minibus and gather some boys and ask them to go to the state and make an account from Keke NAPEP and if after the whole day, no account, those boys will arrest innocent people and take them to their cell.”
However, several attempts made to reach the Public Relations Officer of the state police command, Henry Okoye, on the phone failed.