The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Commissioner of Police, Haruna Garba, has expressed concern that some unidentified individuals use the command’s emergency phones to solicit loans from loan shark firms.
He further claimed that non-state entities were intervening on the emergency lines.
The CP, on the other hand, issued a warning to individuals responsible for the activities, stating that they would be prosecuted.
Garba confirmed this in a statement issued on Friday by the command’s spokesman, SP Josephine Adeh.
“In the same vein,” it said, “the CP enjoins non-state actors who have been engaging the Police emergency lines in their mischievous posts, aimed at misleading members of the public and those submitting same to obtain loans to desist from such and only use the emergency lines for their intended purpose, as deliberate steps will be taken to arrest and prosecute the purveyors of these illegal acts.”
Garba also disputed a widespread story that kidnappers dressed in police uniforms abducted 17 residents of Abuja’s Apo neighbourhood.
“The Commissioner of Police FCT hereby wishes to inform members of the public that contrary to the falsehood making the rounds on media platforms alleging that kidnappers who adorned the Police uniform to perpetrate their illicit acts have kidnapped 17 persons from the Apo area in Abuja, this is a figment of the author’s imagination as no incident of such happened within the FCT,” the statement continued.
She stated that the CP asked communities to work with police to enhance service delivery.
“He also instructs FCT residents to use the following Police Control Room numbers to report suspicious activity: 08032003913, 08061581938, 07057337653, and 08028940883,” she said.