Dismantle Roadblocks, South East, South-South Commuters Begs FG
The trip from Lagos to any part of South-South and South-Eastern Nigeria has become a nightmare in recent times due to excessive checkpoints manned by men of the police, army, and paramilitary agencies, investigations have revealed.
The return of roadblocks on the nation’s highways after they were dismantled on the order of the police chief at a time followed an upsurge in the nefarious activities of armed robbers and kidnappers who made it unsafe to travel by road.
However, motorists and commuters who spoke with Business Hallmark alleged that while the deployment of policemen and soldiers on the highways may have marginally reduced incidents of armed robbery and kidnapping, it has created an avenue for the security operatives to unlawfully enrich themselves and commit other forms of atrocities that constitute unpleasant cost to the people.
Users of the highways are in agreement that the roadblocks are too many and being used for extortion and other activities that defeat their purpose, calling for their total removal or reduction, especially now that the Christmas and New Year festivities are around the corner.
Chief Benjamin Uchechukwu Onyoha, managing director and chief executive officer, His Grace Motors Ltd, observed that the checkpoints have become avenues for extortion, noting that a journey of six hours now takes 10 to 12 hours due to numerous roadblocks.
Speaking with Business Hallmark in an interview, Mr. Onyoha said, “It starts from Ijebu Ode. A journey of six hours now takes 10 to 12 hours. They are not checking anything. It has become an avenue for extortion. Unfortunately, the media has no say any longer.
Buhari has silenced them. Even the Senate, what we have today is a rubber-stamp Senate.” A driver with His Grace Motors, who runs from Lagos to Benin, Mr. Peter Gana, described the situation as a thing of concern and a nightmare, pointing out that what the policemen and soldiers do at the checkpoints is just to extort money from motorists.
He said, “It is a thing of concern. It is a menace. What the policemen and soldiers do at those checkpoints is just to collect money from motorists.
They collect N500 from tankers and trucks and N200 from buses. The delay caused by these illegal collections makes a journey of five hours to take about 10 hours”.
He, however, admitted that the police should be at their duty posts but without blocking the roads.
“The police should stay on the roads with their vehicles for security reasons, but they should not block the roads”, he said. According to him, causing gridlocks with checkpoints can cause road accidents.
“There was a certain roadblock that caused multiple accidents. A certain truck driver refused to pay N500, thereby causing a gridlock that led to another heavy-duty truck’s brake failure.
Mr. John Omaragbon, a driver with Uyi Motors Ltd, who operates from Lagos to Port Harcourt, lamented too many roadblocks, which he said are making road users spend five extra hours on the road. He noted that the roadblocks are being used to check for bags of rice in particular just to collect between N1000 and N2, 000 from the driver.
“They are too many and they’re not doing what the federal government mandated them to do. They are making us spend an extra five hours on the road.
They are checking bags of rice in particular for which they collect N1000 or N2000.”
On his part, Mr. Okon Effiong, a driver with IBOM Express Ltd, who operates from Lagos to Uyo, observed that the policemen at the checkpoints are only busy looking for bags of rice and fairly used cloths just to collect money.
He called on the federal government to reduce the number of roadblocks on the highways.
Mr. Effiong alleged that the policemen and soldiers at some checkpoints deliberately cause gridlocks for the hawkers to make sales so as to make remittances to security operatives in different forms.
“At some of the roadblocks, the policemen and soldiers enter into a dubious partnership with the hawkers”, he alleged. “They will block the road in the guise of stop and search just for the hawkers to sell.
In return, the hawkers give them water, plantain chips, and other items for free.”
Another driver with IBOM Express Ltd, who also runs from Lagos to Uyo, Mr. Williams Akpabio Akpan, said, “The checkpoints are too many.
When they (policemen) open their hands and you don’t put money in there, they ask you to bring out all the loads for a thorough search just to punish you.
“And they address you like an animal. And you know the luggage is not loaded by the drivers. They are loaded by those who are more experience in doing that.”
These policemen and soldiers are worse than armed robbers, Chinedum Ibe, a commuter who recently traveled from Lagos to his home state, Imo, argued.
According to him, it is only unlucky people that fall victim to the armed robbers and kidnappers.
“But at these checkpoints, you see criminals with guns in their uniforms robbing people and wasting their time in the name of stop-and-search and everybody on the road is a victim”, he fumed.
Another passenger, Gladys Eke, who just came back from Onitsha, lamented the numerous checkpoints on the highways that have made traveling by road very tiring and stressful.
“You’ll be angry throughout the journey as a result of an unnecessary delay caused by these uniform men on the road”, she said.
“It is more devastating when you see that their ultimate aim is just to collect money from the driver. They don’t care what the passengers are going through in the gridlocks.”
For private vehicles, it is worse because the pretend to check all the particulars, necessary and otherwise and compel you to pay about N5000 for any missing paper, no matter how minor.
A recent traveler, Mrs. Joyce Emeaka, lamented the ordeal she went through for not the CMR; “I paid between N500 and N1000 at each checkpoint with the assistance of a police friend whom I kept calling for intervention”, she said. “It is sheer hell on the road”.
A report recently released by a rights group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) alleged that an estimated N306 billion had been paid at gunpoint between August 2015 and October 2019 by citizens of eastern Nigeria to estimated 600 militaries and 6,300 police roadblocks in the South East and South-South regions.
“The staggering sum of N306 billion or $1b (at official exchange rate of about N306 per US$) had been paid at gunpoint in the past 50 months or between August 2015 and Oct 2019 by citizens of Southeast and South-south or old Eastern Nigeria including Delta and the Edo States to estimated 600 military-men and 6,300 police roadblocks in the two regions”, the report said in its executive summary.
Little wonder, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, the lawmaker representing Enugu north, on Thursday, December 5, reported to the Senate that there are 60 police checkpoints between Lagos and Onitsha, Anambra State. Senator Utazi, moving a motion on the floor of the Senate, lamented that the checkpoints were being used to oppress motorists and cause them hardship.
Coming under order 42 and 52 of the Senate standing rules, in his motion titled: “National Security versus Disproportionate Road Checkpoints on Federal highways in the country”, Utazi said the national security architecture of Nigeria has been stretched beyond its elastic limits.
He said acts of criminalities have put untold pressure on the country’s national security architecture, necessitating and compelling security agencies to confront security breaches headlong. The lawmaker stated that while roadblocks are necessary to curb criminal activities, its abuse for unintended purposes is reprehensible.
He stated that the Senate “will not renege in our responsibilities when the masses of this country complain that government police meant to protect them has been turned into oppressive conduct by those concerned and which the IGP and people of his ilk may not be aware.”
In consideration of the motion, the Senate appealed to the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, to as a matter of urgency reduce the number of checkpoints on federal highways across the country.
This, according to the Senate, has become necessary to reduce the gridlock on the roads. It also urged Adamu to direct officers of the police force to eschew all forms of extortion as alleged, while carrying out stop-and-search to establish the validity of vehicle particulars.
However, Business Hallmark’s checks show that the appeal has not yielded any perceivable result.
Apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo had earlier drawn attention to what it described as an unusual number of military, paramilitary and police checkpoints, particularly in routes leading into and within Igboland.
It said that at least 60 checkpoints were between Lagos and Onitsha; a major route for Igbo traders. It explained that travelers from Lagos to Ore would confront 24 checkpoints, Ore to Benin-23 while there are 13 checkpoints from Benin to Onitsha.
President General of Ohanaeze, Chief NniaNwodo in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari and Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu, on Wednesday, December 4, noted that checkpoints in Enugu State alone were uncountable.
Nwodo said the interpretation of Ndigbo was that these checkpoints which were primarily concerned with extorting money from numerous Igbo passing through them were mere toll gates.
He condemned the nonchalant attitude of the federal government and heads of security agencies, adding that they gave the impression that the erection of these “toll gates” was deliberate, extortionist and intended to subdue the will of the people.
The letter reads in part: “In some instances, these security agents attend these “toll gates” with POS (Point of Sale) machines which they use to force travelers who have no cash but possess debit cards to forcibly transfer cash to their private accounts.
Gladly, one police officer was reported to have been arrested by the Inspector General in respect of this practice recently.
“As our people prepare to return home for Christmas, it has become necessary to bring to your attention this embarrassing misdemeanor.
It is hoped that you will use your good offices to order officers responsible for this embarrassment to dismantle these “toll gates.
“Modern security is all about information gathering, digital monitoring, and preventive mechanisms, not about Gestapo-like checkpoints.
“It is noteworthy that in all other routes leading out of Igbo land to other parts of Nigeria, checkpoints of the nature that characterize the routes into Igbo land are nowhere to be seen.
“Your Excellency, measures of this nature and the apparent indifference of the federal government continue to make our people feel discriminated against in our national polity.
“It is for this reason that I plead with you to use your good offices to bring to an end this discriminating, intimidating and extortionist practices of our security agents on all routes leading into and within Igbo land.
“We have continued on our part to appeal to our young men and women to restrain their anger and outrage in order to ensure that they do not resort to self-defense
