The leadership of all security agencies in Nigeria have been urged to take more than a passing interest in the continuing abuses perpetrated by their men and officers against law-abiding Nigerians across the highways.
Youth and Students Advocates for Development Initiatives (YSAD), a non-governmental organisation, made this call Tuesday, at a press conference, held in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia state.
This is part of the ongoing campaign, tagged “No dey give, follow traffic rules”, to end the menace of extortion and brutality against road users, by security agencies in Nigeria, especially in the South-East region of the country.
They described as unfortunate that the issue of extortion on Nigeria roads continues to multiply with reckless abandon.
Obinna Nwagbara, chief executive officer, YSAD, while addressing the press, also noted that the perpetrators are unashamedly going about their ugly activities in full glare of the public, including innocent children.
He called on the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, and the leadership of sister security agencies, to do more than mere issuing of orders to their subordinates and save Nigeria from another #EndSARS experience.
He also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to demonstrate leadership, by compelling the leadership of various law enforcement agencies in Nigeria to call their men to order.
Read also: Reps recommend N390m compensation for extrajudicial killings, injuries by Customs
This is as he equally called on motorists to obey traffic rules at all times.
According to Nwagbara, from Aba to Umuahia, Enugu to Nsukka, Okigwe to Owerri, Owerri to Port Harcourt, Umuikaa junction to Owerri, Aba to Ikot- Ekpene and across several major roads in the region, immense amount of man-hours is lost daily on account of multiple checkpoints set up ostensibly for the purpose of extorting motorists and other road users.
In addition to the multiple checkpoints on the major highways, roads within the cities are also not free for motorists, because of the activities of extortionate officials, desperately making life unbearable for hard-working Nigerians, YSAD chief executive officer, stated.
“It is public knowledge that scores of lives have been lost at these checkpoints in the last few years, as trigger-happy officials readily point the guns at those, who fail to pay these bribes; the outcome in most cases have been lethal.”
He expressed disappointment that despite countless orders for the dismantling of these illegal checkpoints, by former Inspector General’s of Police, the story continues to get worse.
He described it as strange that rather than having reduced or zero checkpoints in line with the express orders of the police leadership that the people continue to see more of these checkpoints in the cities or while commuting interstate.
He recalled that members of the House of Representatives, in December 2021, passed a motion for the dismantling of the checkpoints, but noted that rather than dismantle the checkpoints, as recommended by the legislature, more checkpoints were created with gun-wielding officials engaged in ‘open bazaars’ on our roads.
He stressed that sadly, almost all checkpoint-mounting agencies, including the Police, Army, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and various task forces across the states were active in this show of shame on the roads this past yuletide.
According to him, they were seen openly collecting bribes from motorists and even “making change” for those who so demand or who bribed with higher denomination.
“Seeing all of these, we were forced to ask: at what point did Nigerian roads become commercial banks and security and law enforcement agents’ cashiers?
“It is our conviction that the stakeholders and indeed all citizens should be worried and concerned by these brazen acts of corruption, at a time President Muhammadu Buhari, continues to talk about anti-corruption campaigns and programmes”.
Nwagbara however stated that the aim of YSAD is to bring to an end this tragic menace as soon as practicable, noting that they are working to raise the level of conversation on the menace of extortion with a view to getting officials of government across the states and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to begin to take action on this.
“We can no longer watch idly as Nigerians are exploited and coerced into paying bribes by gun-toting security and law enforcement personnel.
“For us at YSAD, our focus is to contribute to building a decent society, where people can confidently and freely travel from one location to another, without being hounded or coerced into paying bribes by law enforcement agents”.
He called on governments at all levels to partner with the the group to accomplish their campaign plank of seeing that all checkpoints, except ones set up critically for the purpose of tracking and stopping criminals, are dismantled and any personnel caught collecting bribes, whether directly or through the use of proxies are arrested, investigated, prosecuted and sanctioned according to the provisions of the law.
He insisted that Nigeria must be a nation of law and those given the mandate of enforcing law and order must never be seen to be living beyond the laws of the land.
Nwagbara on behalf of YSAD, thanked “VOICE”, it’s supporter, for their interest and support for the project, the National Orientation Agency (NOA), other government agencies, transport unions and other civil society organizations, working with them to deliver the roads from the menace of extortion and harassment.
