₦airaland Forum

When Will Igbo Leaders Rise Against The Extortion of Commercial Motorists In Igboland By Security Agencies?

1. Every commercial driver in Igboland who plies intra or inter-city routes is sure to encounter a police-army or civil defence checkpoint at least once for every 5 kilometres covered.
2. At each of these checkpoints, the average driver is expected to drop at least N50 into the waiting hands of a security personnel.
3. Those who fail to perform this rituals are delayed and sometimes allegations of theft levelled against them.
4. This practice has been remained unchallenged for years.
5. I understand that security personnel often lobby to be posted to eastern Nigeria where these checkpoints have since metamorphosed to business centres where innocent, hardworking drivers are exploited by greedy police and military personnel.
6. During my last trip from Umuahia to Enugu, our driver happily gave away more than N1, 000 over a distance of less than 200 kilometres.
7. On this route, over 2, 000 different commercial drivers perform this ritual daily, handing away over 2 million naira each day including Sundays at various checkpoints.
8. Now these bribes are paid for no particular services. On these routes, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape and various forms of heinous crimes are still carried out- the scores of checkpoints along the routes serving as no deterrent to the criminals.
9. One would have thought that individuals and groups committed to protecting the rights and privileges of Ndi Igbo would have risen firmly to challenge this.
10. Why are we all keeping quiet in the face of this mindless extortions?
11. I have established that 2 million naira or more is “transmitted” daily by commercial drivers on the Umuahia to Enugu route alone.
12. The situation is not different on the Aba-Port Harcourt, Enugu-Nsukka, Aba-Ikot Ekpene, Arochukwu-Ohafia, Onitsha-Orumba, Awka-Enugu routes.
13. Extortion of commercial drivers by security agencies is not restricted to inter-city highways alone.
14. Keke drivers in Aba, Umuahia, Enugu, Onitsha, Awka and several other cities in Igboland are also offered no respite by these security operatives.
15. A keke rider in Umuahia once told me that he personally spends an average of N500 each business day to “settle” police. When I asked why, he told me he does not like troubles.
16. In Umuahia, you see these security operatives at Tower, Ishi gate, Uzuakoli Road, Umudike road and in several other parts of the town openly harassing these keke drivers into parting with various amounts of money each time they pass.
17. More disturbing, the policemen in these places have come to see these bribes as legitimate operational fees each keke rider or bus driver must pay on each passing.
18. I am pained specially to note passengers nudging the drivers to settle so that their time is not wasted.
19. Who did this to us? When did we all become cowards? If the women of Aba rose against British Imperialists with all their might in the 1920s, why are we too afraid to stand up to these security men who perpetuate impunity in our land?
20. Why is Ohaneze Ndigbo, Aka Ikenga and other socio-cultural groups in Igboland keeping quiet in the face of this blind extortion by security men?
21. Do they not see it as a threat to the economic and social wellbeing of the average Igbo man?
22. Why should we allow a keke rider who earns less than N5000 each business day to pay a cumulative bribe of N500 to security agents who are paid from the tax paid by the same keke driver?
23. Why have the elites abandoned the downtrodden in Igboland to be fleeced by the economic locusts who dress as policemen in our cities?
24. Why are the NGOs who fight for the economic welfare of our people not addressing these challenges?
25. Someone must rise against this new lingering exploitation of our land by operatives of the Nigerian security services.
26. These security agents are paid from the public treasury, the commercial

Not good at all.i wonder if any punitive measures was taken against that policeman in the first picture.
I don't think there is any difference between armed robbers and those in the second picture.

there is, one has not acquired a license to rob and kill innocent people while the other has a license with a uniform as proof of that license . these assholes are everywhere in the country.

overdrive:
I don't think there is any difference between armed robbers and those in the second picture.