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No fewer than two policemen, who stole N10 million from a businessman on August 16, 2025, are being detained in Abuja following several reports of extortion, armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom, FIJ has gathered.

Adamu Sani and SP Austine, policemen attached to the Force Intelligence Department (FID), a unit of the police that is close to the Inspector General of Police (IGP)’s office, are being investigated for more than two suspected crimes.

Both men were part of the FID team that broke into the house of Lukman Abubakar, an Abuja-based businessman, on August 15 in the guise of a power distribution company’s personnel.

After gaining entry, they bundled and relocated Abubakar to their office, where they demanded N10 million in exchange for his freedom. If he failed to pay, they told him, they would hand him over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Placed between a rock and a very hard place, Abubakar made phone calls to raise the money. Because the police wanted cash as ransom payments, he had his wife withdraw the N10 million sum from a POS operator at the rate of N85,000.

Recounting the experience to FIJ, Abubakar said that when his neighbour told him that electricity company officials were knocking on his door, he went to probe.

“I got to the door and opened it and saw three men barge in, so I tried to stop them, but they forced their way in,” Abubakar told FIJ. “My fiancée had already made her way down to the parlour, so we were asking them questions; one of them eventually responded and said they’re from the FID police department in Area 11, Abuja.

“They claimed to have been briefed about me and how I was into some illegal stuff. I was calm during this whole process because I’m as legit as they come, so I allowed them to search the house. They took my car key, which was on the parlour table, and went outside to bring my car papers in from the car. A minute later, they showed me a search warrant showing my name. My gut tells me that they got my name from looking at the car documents.

“They made their way to the other two floors of the house and did their search. They ended up taking my MTN MiFi, three laptops and five phones belonging to my fiancée and me.”

Abubakar said the police asked him to change into a different attire, but he told them he could go with what he was wearing. They then took him to their headquarters opposite the IGP’s office.

“My fiancée and Victor (the guy who called earlier to alert me of their presence) followed us. He was inside the house during the whole search,” Abubakar continued. “One of them drove my car, and another sat beside him in front, while my fiancée, another of their team members and I sat behind them. The rest of them and Victor entered the car they brought, and we were headed to their office.”

When they got to the office, what followed were hours of interrogation.

“After a while, one of the officers came in,” he added. “I was later informed that he was my IPO. His name is Adamu Sani. He interrogated me and asked me to add to the statement, which I obliged. Not long after, another officer came in whose name is SP Austine; he seemed to be the head of this particular team.

“He pointed out that I was not into fraud, and my only offence was using crypto platforms like Binance, Bybit, MEXC and others, as they do not have a licence in Nigeria to operate, and also I’ve committed something called ‘identity theft’ because I have multiple emails, Discords, Telegrams and Twitter accounts, which I explained why I did, and anyone in crypto usually has them, but I was told my car and other items will be held for further investigations.”

Originally, the police wanted N1 million, but Abubakar, whose wedding was coming up in a month, offered to pay them N500,000. The situation soon took a turn for the worse. Sani returned to say his boss had signed Abubakar’s detention warrant. They locked him up for 24 hours.

This boss, whose name Abubakar couldn’t confirm, would later be mentioned as a beneficiary of the N10 million ransom he had to pay the next day.

On Saturday, August 16, the police demanded N20 million after letting the man suffer in detention for a night.

Unwilling to go back into the cell, Abubakar agreed to pay them N10 million. After paying, they told him to bring his bank statement from January 1, 2025, to August 18, 2025. They also had him visit their office every two weeks or risk facing charges of fraud and advance fee fraud.

“I was finally taken to their boss, a DCP who was jovial and friendly,” Abubakar said. “The man told them to grant me bail on bond. All my items were released to me, and I was allowed to leave with my wife-to-be and friend.”

Upon his release, Abubakar had his lawyer write a petition to the IGP’s office. On August 31, the Police Complaints Response Unit (CRU) got the team to return N4 million in cash with a promise to return the rest in two weeks. This balance never came.

When FIJ called the CRU in October, its boss, Ini Ani, said that the team was facing multiple charges of extortion, abuse of power and other crimes, and they were in detention.

Abubakar, who visited Ani’s office to face the policemen, told FIJ that the two officers were saying that the DCP partook in the loot, and they could not recover it without the CRU going after him.

FIJ called Stephen Kuti and Benjamin Hundeyin in the Force Public Relations Office (FPRO), but while Kuti said it was hard to get money out of the policemen while they were in detention, Hundeyin said he would look into the matter.

pafestula:
Police officers for that matter. This is so ridiculous

And why did he allow such extortion after he was threatened about EFCC if his hands were actually clean?

Cunny man die, cunny man burry am. Thieves

TechBaron:
Please spell words correctly when you post, and try to use perfect grammar and punctuation.

Gotocourt:
Body go tell them, very anyhow cops

donleo92:
I trust police for this one....

Those dudes don lose their jobs or better still prison they wait them......


Ig go just deny them sharp sharp