Ndigbo and Nightmare of coming home for Christmas, As Deteriorating infrastructure and Uncountable checkpoints Makes Life a Helish Experience



AS Ndigbo and other residents of South East region prepare to return home for Christmas and New Year celebrations, they are sure to face nightmare of passing through uncountable checkpoints, which actually are extortion points by security operatives. No route to the region is free of excessive extortion checkpoints.


Put together, from Lagos to Onitsha, Abuja to Enugu and the numerous ones dotting the roads in the region, no less than 4000 checkpoints constitute embarrassing barriers the people are subjected to. At each checkpoint, motorists are openly extorted amounts ranging between N200 to N1000. This cuts across checkpoints manned by military and police.


Most embarrassing is that in some of these checkpoints, passengers are forced to disembark from their vehicles to walk across before boarding their vehicles again. Painfully, this is done irrespective of the weather or the health condition of the occupants in such vehicles.


While brazenly engaging in the extortion spree, motorists and their passengers are also inhumanly treated like a conquered people. Annoyingly, in some cases the security operatives are not interested in carrying out routine security checks but to just extort and humiliate the commuters. They behave and act as if they are for different mission in the region other than to provide security to the people. Surprisingly, despite all the hues and cries from the people about this ugly trend in the South East, the military and police high command are yet to take any visible serious actions to stop it.


While Condemning the high rate of extortion of motorists on the South East roads, particularly by police and soldiers, the Coordinator of the Eastern Development Initiative ( EDI), Comrade Ugochukwu Nwaosueke urged the police and military high commands to take drastic measures against their men involved in the evil act. He insisted that the leadership of the security agencies must do more than giving out orders and threats which are hardly taken serious.


“We wish to call the attention of the leadership of these security agencies to take more than a passing interest in the evil activities of their men and officers against Nigerians. It is unfortunate that the issue of extortion on our roads continues to multiply, with perpetrators unashamedly going about their ugly activities in the full glare of the public, including innocent children.



From Aba to Umuahia, Enugu to Nsukka, Okigwe to Owerri, Owerri to Port Harcourt, from Port Harcourt to Aba, Umuikaa Junction to Owerri, Aba to Ikot-Ekpene and across several major roads in the South East, huge man hours are lost daily on account of multiple checkpoints where motorists are intimidated and extorted. As we approach the yuletide, more checkpoints with gun-wielding officials are daily taking over the highways in the South East. It is now an open bazaar on South East roads.


They are openly extorting from motorists, even giving change for those who so demand.“Seeing all of these, we are forced to ask; at what point did Nigerian roads become commercial banks and security and law enforcement agents’ cashiers? The IGP and the CPs, the military high command must do more than just barking out threats and orders against their men on the highways”, Nwaosueke lamented.


Comrade Nwaosueke charged the governors of South East to rise up and say enough is enough. He said the humiliation has lasted because the South East governors have allowed it.


He stated: “The EDI strongly condemns such humiliation and torture of the residents of South East. It is happening because the governors gave their consent to it. I have always insisted that the security chiefs in the South East must have mentioned it to the governors during security meetings and the governors approved of that.


“The governors should rise and stop it. The people of South East should not be treated with such disdain.”Yes, there had been cases of criminals attacking security agents at checkpoints, but this shouldn’t warrant such measure. It is capable of generating hatred in the minds of residents, thereby making them not to volunteer necessary intelligence needed to ensure effective security of the zone”.


Based in n careful analysis, it is now clear that the checkpoints across South East region are officially set for extortion, intimidation, humiliation against Ndigbo”.


Available intelligence has revealed that the checkpoints are very often used for evils, in some cases kidnappings.


“Nigeria’s checkpoints in the South East are official organized extortion, humiliation, intimidation of Ndigbo. Huge sums of money is extorted from the Igbo at gunpoint at checkpoints, including those by another terrible group called Road Safety Corps, the topmost nemesis of travelers, whose own assignment is how to make bad things worse.


“Igbo youths with laptops, attractive handsets, reverse caps, sagging trousers, backpacks, especially those in flashy cars are instantly arrested for being “Yahoo boys” and, once taken or dragged behind a nearby building, they are never seen again by their families. The intimidation must stop”, Nwaosueke said.


Concluding, he wished the entire Ndigbo, a successful yuletide celebration and a prosperous New Year.