Extortion at security checkpoints on the roads in the South-East region has continued unabated; and it will ?flourish? more in the coming days and weeks when the people of South-East residing in other parts of the country and Diaspora will start coming home for the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

As has become their unfortunate fate, they will be confronted with the ugly experiences in the hands of security personnel, especially police and soldiers at the numerous checkpoints on the major roads that lead to the South-East region as well as the ones that connect the five states of the region.

The worrisome thing is that they treat the road users as if they are illegal immigrants in their own country by harassing, intimidating, and humiliating them before extorting the money. And nothing serious has been done by military and police high command to rein in their men despite the outrage it has been generating.

Number of Police, Army checkpoints embarrassing ? Onitsha residents

Checks show that from Onitsha to Enugu Express, a distance of about 105 kilometres, travellers are confronted with over 25 security checkpoints, comprising the Army, Police, Road Safety, and NDLEA personnel. An average of a checkpoint of about every three kilometres in war zones is not like that.

Therefore, one of the major worries of road users in the region is their encounters with the police and soldiers at these checkpoints. Recently, a police officer, Inspector Sani Suleiman, attached to Otuocha Area Command in Anambra East Council Area, killed a young man at a checkpoint over his alleged refusal to pay a N100 bribe. According to a fellow driver who witnessed the incident: ?We were in the queue at the checkpoint waiting for the police officers to pass us before we suddenly heard the sound of a gunshot. The incident caused chaos and panic as some youths in the area mobilised against the action of the police before they eventually drove off from the scene.?

The affected police officer had, however, been disarmed and detained for further investigations and internal disciplinary procedures.

In Ihiala axis, it is still common to see commuters being ordered out of their vehicles with hands above their shoulders to pass the checkpoints, while the driver drives empty across the checkpoint for them to rejoin him. This also happens along Onitsha-Atani road at Odekpe Road where commercial vehicle operators would park, come down, and approach a stationary vehicle occupied by naval men and drop their money before continuing their journey.

This humiliation is scaring Igbo people residing outside the region from returning home for this year?s Christmas celebrations.

Ethelbert Okeke, who resides in Lagos, said: ?I live in Lagos and I cannot afford to go through the several roadblocks between Lagos and Asaba and then face the worst ones between Onitsha and Mgbidi, my hometown. I have decided that I will just send money to my people at home for Christmas to take care of everything, including family meetings. Maybe we will begin to visit home when the situation improves.?

A commercial driver who plies the Enugu-Onitsha route, Okwudili Otuka said: ?We know the number of checkpoints between Onitsha and Enugu, and we also know we have the Army, the Police, Navy and Road Safety. We already have an understanding with the police, and their money is N200. If I don?t have a single note of N200, the policeman is ready to give me change. For Road Safety, it is N500 per stop and for the Army, it is also N200.

?What I consider as the main problem is the delay they cause us when they begin to waste time with private car owners who are usually reluctant to settle them.

?What is happening at these checkpoints is not proper, but what can we do? Most of the security operatives at the checkpoints do not usually ask for vehicle particulars, which means they are only after our money,? the driver said.

They extort and humiliate with brazen impunity ? Intersociety

Speaking to this, a leading rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety, laments the shameless impunity with which soldiers and police extort money, brutalize and harass road users in the South-East.

According to the chairman of Intersociety, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi, the soldiers and police at checkpoints are emboldened to carry on with the illegal acts due to alleged tactical support from their leadership who never wielded the big stick against them.

?The reason why they have continued to do this is because of the existence of ?return culture?, they make returns to their superiors who turn blind eyes to the illegality and inhuman treatment being unleashed on road users. They can no longer dismiss it as actions from bad eggs, it has their support; it has been unofficially institutionalised.

?This is why they tactically encourage the ugly things they do at the checkpoints. Some of them have become millionaires if not billionaires, owning properties and choice houses in strategic places across the country. The military and police high command should stop pretending, Nigerians know what they do in the South-East.

?And the question remains; why the siege only in the South-East, why the inhuman treatment, the harassment, intimidation, humiliation, and criminal extortion of the people of the South-East zone? What did they do wrong; these extortion checkpoints must be dismantled. They are not there to check insecurity but for shameless massive extortion,? Umeagablasi said.

COAS, IGP must do more than give orders ? Nwagbara

Reacting, another rights activist, Obinna Nwagbara tasked the Chief of Army Staff, the Inspector-General of Police, and the heads of other security agencies to take drastic measures if they truly want to stop the extortion and humiliation instead of merely giving orders and threats which are not obeyed.

He said: ?The leadership of the security agencies must do more than give orders to their personnel on extortion. Unfortunately, the issue of extortion on our roads continues with reckless abandon, with perpetrators unashamedly going about their ugly activities in the full glare of the public, including innocent children.

?Across all the major roads in the region, huge man hours are lost daily on account of multiple checkpoints where motorists are delayed, intimidated, and extorted.

?As we approach the yuletide, more checkpoints with gun-wielding officers are daily taking over the highways in the South-East. It is now an open bazaar on South-East roads. Sadly, almost all checkpoints, mounted by the Police Army, FRSC, NDLEA, and various task forces across the states are active in this show of shame on our roads. They are openly collecting bribes from motorists and even giving change to those who so demand or who give them more than the agreed bribe fee.

?Seeing all of these, we are forced to ask: at what point did Nigerian roads become commercial banks and security and law enforcement agents, the cashiers? The IGP, CPs, and the military should do more than just bark out threats and orders against their men on the highways.?

They should stop molesting us ? Ebonyi indigenes

In Ebonyi State, commuters and commercial vehicle drivers groan over the level of harassment, extortion, and humiliation they are subjected to at the checkpoints on the roads across the state, particularly those mounted on the Ebonyi borders with other states.

At these boundary checkpoints, no commercial vehicle, haulage vans, chipping trucks, and other vehicles cross the place without paying N100, N200, N500, and N1000, depending on the type of vehicle. The police at these checkpoints park any vehicle that refuses to comply and delay it for hours. Particularly, the Ishieke Police checkpoint seems to be a permanent toll collection point.

James Nwedu who plies the Enugu-Ebonyi route frowned at the level of harassment and extortion they encounter, saying that they extort from drivers with impunity.

?We are used to their harassment and forceful collection of money from us. We pay each time we pass any checkpoint. They don?t have a conscience, they can park your vehicle for hours if you refuse to comply, they can also discharge your passengers and force them to trek across the checkpoint just to humiliate them,? Nwedu lamented.

A truck driver, Oliver Onyeukwu said he spends more money settling security agents on the Ebonyi-Enugu road than the Ebonyi ? Cross River route, lamenting: ?We are helpless because the government is not doing anything to stop the ugly situation.?

A trader who deals in plantain and banana, Mrs. Ngozi Udeobi lamented the negative impact on their business.

?We buy the plantain and banana bunches in Cross River State; we hire vehicles to our various markets in Anambra and Enugu states. The drivers charge us more because of expenses on the road and we pass some of the expenses to the consumers.

?The cost of food is high because of the extortion on the roads. We normally pay produce fees which are recognised by the government, but apart from that, we settle police and military at checkpoints. We pay between N1000 and N3,000 depending on the size of the goods. What we are passing through is the same as other foodstuff dealers. We spend between N100,000 and N200,000 on both produce fee and security agents? settlement. We add these expenses on the goods to see if we can break even.?

A young entrepreneur, Okechukwu Edozie lamented how he missed his younger sister?s convocation ceremony at EBSU due to delay and extortion of the police at the boundary between Enugu and Ebonyi states.

?I was driving my car, Lexus 330 series with my friends from Anambra to Ebonyi State to attend my younger sister?s convocation ceremony when policemen at a checkpoint accosted us and stopped us. We were four in the car, my little sister and my friends, two boys. When we went to the checkpoint, they rushed at us as if we were armed robbers, shouting ?park, park, clear from the road.? I cleared, and they started searching our bags. They first asked me about my papers and driver?s licence which I provided to them and they held them. They searched all of us one by one and could not find any incriminating items. One of them said that we are Yahoo Boys and that we should be searched thoroughly.

?We got to the checkpoint at about 11 am but stayed there till 2.30 pm. After all the searching, they could not find anything. They ordered us to surrender all our phones and I told them that my phone was my personal/private property; they shouted at me and forcefully collected the phone. They searched our phones but could not find anything. One of them said that there were some Apps on the phones that needed to be checked by their computer expert in the office. We started arguing about that and one of them approached me and said: ?Don?t you know what you should do to get out of this place? You people have stayed long here and I want to help you. How much do you have so that I will appeal to the officer to return your phones?? I told him, I didn?t have money; he said I can make a transfer from my phone or use my credit card to make a payment. So, in the end, I had no choice but to spare N10,000 before they returned our phones and allowed us to go?, Edozie lamented.

However, the Ebonyi State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) DSP Joshua Ukandu frowned at the activities of some policemen at the checkpoints. He said the command has been organising training and lectures for the officers on the best way to discharge their duties on the roads.

Security agents treat commuters as prisoners of war ? Igbo youths warn

In their reaction, Igbo youths frowned at the ill-treatment of road users in the region. They accused the police and soldiers at the checkpoints of treating commuters and motorists in the zone as prisoners of war.

Speaking under the aegis of Coalition of South-East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, Igbo youths decried the level of humiliation motorists and commuters are subjected to at the various checkpoints across the zone, and called for an immediate stop to the dehumanising treatment. They demanded the immediate dismantling of all military and police checkpoints in the zone ahead of the yuletide. They argue that the presence of roadblocks escalates insecurity in the region.

President-General of COSEYL, Comrade Goodluck Ibem said: ?The Federal Government should dismantle all military and police checkpoints in the South-East with immediate effect. Our people suffer so much at these checkpoints. People spend hours at these checkpoints in the region; it does not happen in other parts of the country. Sometimes, passengers are forced to alight from their vehicles and trek across the checkpoint. This is unacceptable.

?Even during war time, people are not subjected to such humiliation and inhuman treatment. Security agents are treating South-Easterners like prisoners of war.

?They even contribute to the high cost of food items in the markets because trucks conveying foodstuff from the North to South-East pay at least N3000 at every checkpoint. Some insist on N5000; a truck coming from the Northern part to the South-East spends up to N25,000 just on security agents at checkpoints alone. This is open robbery.

?Their presence even escalates insecurity because they are only collecting money and not there for the people. It doesn?t stop insecurity. Security is all about intelligence-gathering and not standing sentry on the roads to extort money from hapless motorists.?

Narrating his experience, a truck driver who pleaded for anonymity mentioned the Army checkpoint at Ariam Ikwuano on the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene road, as one of the worst checkpoints in Abia State.

?They now collect N5000 per big vehicle at that checkpoint. Before, they were collecting N2000 but now, they insist on N5000, that is why I have stopped plying that route. There is also another checkpoint between Ikot-Ekpene and Aba. They collect N2000 per vehicle there.?

Road users in Imo State said they daily pass through hell on the roads in the course of going about their legitimate businesses. They corroborate the same story of humiliation, intimidation, and extortion from the soldiers and policemen at checkpoints.

The President of the Igbo National Council, INC, Chilos Godsent, who said he travels often, condemns what road users go through especially at such places as Okigwe-Uturu junction, along ABSU road; Ihube junction along the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, Akachi Junction on the Aba-Owerri road, PDS on Anara-Amaraku road in Isiala Mbano Council Area, Umuowa by Imo Airport junction, among the numerous spots he enumerated. He said that a petition had been written to the Defence Headquarters on the illegal things going on at Army checkpoints in the state but no positive action has been taken by the military high command.

A motorist, Timo Oke said: ?The worst of the extortion, humiliation and intimidation happen at night. I am a driver. I was able to understand the insecurity level in Imo because I normally do my taxi business mostly at night. You will see security agents without uniforms; they look so scary and most times passengers wonder if they are security men or unknown gunmen . If you want to see and know more, just move around in the night. When they see these young boys with flashy vehicles, they stop them and ask them to transfer money to their account. So, you people should help us to tell our leaders to intervene because I see this as the height of criminality in this state.?

A resident of Atta in Ikeduru Council Area of Imo State, who identified himself as Ibeh Uzo, described the situation as ?something that has gone out of hand,? lamenting: ?Even our security operatives now behave like market men and women, extorting money and giving change to motorists where necessary.?

Jude Uchechukwu of Liberty Assembly of God laments that ?all the roads in South East states are littered with the army, police checkpoints, FRSC, Civil Defense and local neighborhood, all engaged in extorting road users?.

Also, Dr. Chikamadu Eze of Highway to Grace Assembly laments the plights of road users at checkpoints on the roads in the zone and condemns the level of extortion, intimidation, and humiliation at the hands of security personnel. (Vanguard)

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