Police Extort Money from Road Users in Afikpo, Ebonyi State
A student of the Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Ebonyi State, urges the IGP to look into unauthorized money extortion from students and other Afikpo-Unwana road users by police officers.
We have received a distress call from Samuel Kelechi who is a Higher National Diploma II student of the Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, located in Afikpo, Ebonyi State.
Mr. Kelechi lamented the current situation whereupon police officers extort money from students at checkpoints.
At first, Mr. Kelechi says, there was a period of a relative peace when the Inspector General of Police (IGP) announced the disbandment of roadblocks along Afikpo-Unwana road. The road is widely used by students who board or use their own bikes on daily basis to get to the university. Before the roadblocks were banned, Mr. Kelechi wrote, one would encounter up to four police checkpoints on a 6km distance and subjected to pay about N200 to get the permission to pass.
However, the police have once again gone back to their usual practices – this time "in disguise," operating as patrol teams that stay in-between the roots, and as a checkpoint instituted to protect the Islamic Center (an islamic school) located along the road.
The police officers have turned their security services to business ventures as they now mount on the road for the entire week.
Students using their own or commercial motorcycles, lecturers on their private cars, owners of commercial vehicles, those whose papers are complete or not, – everyone has to pay from N50 to N100 and above to pass.
The costs are burdening the students who already are paying their school expenses.
Mr. Kelechi, therefore, pleads with the the IGP Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, the Ebonyi State Commissioner of Police Moses Saba-Ndagi to investigate the matter and bring the “insatiable officers that want to dent the image of Nigeria Police” to book.
Source: Legit.ng
