@UncleDara_, an Abuja-based Twitter user has accused some policemen in the Gwarinpa area of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, of allegedly stopping him twice in the week and questioning him for driving a 2009 Honda Accord Coupe.
The tweep who tagged the Force Police Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, on Wednesday, narrated that, “Your men of the Anti-Car Theft around Gwarinpa harassed me for the second time in less than a week. They stopped me, asked for car papers, searched my car and one of the officers wanted to know where I work. I told him.
“He asked about my salary. I told him I don’t think he can ask me that and he said how much is my salary as an engineer that I could afford a 2009 Honda Accord Coupe, and that I must be doing something unlawful and fraudulent. They insist I will go to the station.
“My crime is that I have a car they think I can’t afford. I had to call my lawyer, @SamoraFortune, whom they refused to talk to. Then he (the lawyer) said he was coming to meet us there, and that was when they allowed me to go.”
Describing the development as unfair, the tweep added that it was the “second time in one week and it’s the same set of officers. Is it okay for a policeman on the road to ask me how much I earn?”
The FFPRO, who reacted to the tweet on Wednesday evening, stated that similar men had stopped him in a car before, and they couldn’t answer him professionally when he challenged them.
Anti-Car Theft? Were they in uniform? I guess I sent them away from a point in Abuja not quite long (ago). They stopped me in my car, and I felt uncomfortable with their conduct. I asked them some questions but they couldn’t reply to me professionally,” the police spokesman tweeted.
When contacted on Thursday to ask if the policemen had been identified, Adejobi told PUNCH Metro that he had referred the matter to the FCT Command.
“I have referred the matter to the FCT command, so you can follow up with the PPRO FCT,” he said in response to a text message from our correspondent.
The FCT Command’s PRO, Josephine Adeh, however, said she didn’t know about the case.
“I don’t know the case, but you can come to my office and give me more details,” she said in response to a chat from our correspondent on Thursday.
Efforts to reach the tweep, @UncleDara_, for further details of the incident were also abortive as he was yet to respond to a direct message sent to him by our correspondent on Twitter.