NCoS says extortion accusations reported by Premium Times spiteful, unfounded – Nexus News
The Nigeria Correctional Service, NCoS, has stated that a recent report by Premium Times on extortion, claiming that officials of the service are forcefully collecting money from suspects on court remand before sending them into custody is false, malicious and unfounded.
Premium Times had previously reported that a leaked correspondence to the Controller General of the NCoS, Haliru Nababa by a deputy commissioner of police at the Police Special Fraud Unit Ikoyi, Lagos, Ibrahim Zango, to warn officers of the service fond of asking for the sums of N10-20,000 from relatives of suspects on Court remand before they can be received for remand.
But in a press release, the service called on members of the public to debunk the report stating that it is unfounded and written with bad intent.
Public Relations Officer of the Service, (PRO), of the service, Abubakar Umar said “The attention of the Nigerian Correctional Service has been drawn to a report making the rounds in which a senior police officer accused some correctional officials of extorting money before admitting remanded suspects in custody. The Service wishes to inform the public to disregard the said report as it is unfounded, malicious and untrue.
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“The report cannot be true as it is best described as a talk show. Suspects are usually escorted from the courts to the custodial facilities by officials of the prosecuting agencies, under whose watch, such admissions are done. The process of admission into a custodial facility starts immediately after the suspect is presented by the official with an accompanying detention warrant from a court of competent jurisdiction. Obviously, it is not practicable to extort money from suspects before admitting them as the report claims,” parts of the press release reads.
The service also stated that no reporter from the news medium had reached out to the service’s spokesman for clarification as stated on the subject matter.
“To set the record straight, no reporter of any news platform contacted the Service on the issue; it is unfortunate that a Premium Times reporter claimed to have called for clarification on the subject matter,” he said.
Umar called on Newsmen to always seek clarification “on contentious matters” before publication to avoid misleading the public for the betterment of the nation.
He also cautioned that the “Service will not tolerate falsehood and concoction of news to spread lies and unfounded information, just to mislead the general public.”
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