We’re being treated like slaves at checkpoints — S'East road users – Newstrends
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We’re being treated like slaves at checkpoints — S’East road users

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Nigerian soldiers at checkpoint

We’re being treated like slaves at checkpoints — S’East road users

Many people using major roads in the South-East region say they are still being subjected to harrowing experiences at various security checkpoints.

Motorists in a report by Vanguard accused the security agents especially soldiers of open extortion and passengers were being embarrassed intimidated and humiliated.

They said passengers, irrespective of their age, health status or weather condition, were made to disembark from their vehicles to cross the checkpoints on foot, to rejoin their vehicles which are only allowed to meet them across the checkpoint after the driver must have been forced to cough out some money. Their journey is delayed without apology. No commuters and motorists would dare make or answer telephone calls near or around the checkpoints, no matter the emergency of the call.

This is reportedly done with impunity; a situation said to be subduing an entire region.

This subduing mentality at the checkpoints is said to be getting out of hand.

Despite cries and complaints by Ndigbo leaders, including members of the National Assembly caucus, against these degrading practices, the military and police high command are yet to call their men to order.

It’s daylight robbery —Rights group

Speaking to this, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi, a trained criminologist and board chairman, Inter-society for civil liberty and rule of law, a foremost rights advocate, described the level of extortion on the roads in the region as daylight robbery.

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“It is a horrible situation but let me start by saying that what we have in the South-East now is a combination of state actors and non-state actors, armed robbers; that is armed robbers in the sense of highway robbery through massive extortion.

“If you look at the military law, for Instance, the provision of Armed Forces Act 2004, has provisions for offence against extortion and the law clearly explains extortion as a way of obtaining money or any other material through the use of force. And it is being rapaciously and indiscriminately perpetuated on South-East roads. Yet nobody has been punished according to the law. What is happening on South- East roads is a very horrible experience.

“This is a situation where the people of the zone and people plying the roads in the region have been subjected to torture – physical and physiological. You see a situation where people face intimidation, harassment and sometimes random arrest and abduction, especially at night hours. Those who embark on night travels are subjected to more horrible  experience in torture, intimidation and harassment. It is a terrible situation in the South-East since 2015, and worst of all is that it is being perpetrated by the military.

“There is this culture of impunity. There are two things that are responsible for the inability to tackle this siege mentality and intimidation in the South-East. One has to do with the increasing or alarming rate of impunity where the military officers seem to have lost control of the junior ones, because one thing about corruption is that if you want to fight corruption in an organisation, the anti- corruption pusher has to start with the leaders who are operating the system. So, if you are an employer and you lead the way of corruption; what do you want your employees to do? They will follow your footsteps. So, that is the situation we have.

“The second factor is the ‘returns’ culture. Every military\police officer is (allegedly) a beneficiary of the large scale extortions. This is not the issue of whether their senior officers are aware. They are fully aware and they benefit from the extortion and that is why it is thriving.

“For instance, the Nigeria Naval Base in Ogbaru has a checkpoint at Uga junction in Onitsha, Anambra State; and a lot of money is extorted there on a daily basis. There is direct and indirect extortion. Everyone around there, including the petty trader, is being extorted. The officers posted there, in a short time, change their cars and begin to live large. Any one of them that stays between 6 months and one year would have several commercial tricycles, shuttle buses and even L300 buses plying for them.

“The same thing goes on at the Asaba Army checkpoint at the Onitsha-Asaba end of the road. If you go to Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Ebonyi states, the entire South-East region, checkpoints are dotted at short intervals, and it is the same business at each of them”, Umeagbalasi lamented.

Continuing, he said: “I think we are facing three sets of wars in the South-East, first the presumed genocide by security operatives; secondly the Jihadist Fulani herdsmen and bandits, and thirdly, the rise of both government and non- government-linked criminal entities, counterfeit agitators and others who specialise in sundry street violent activities like kidnap for ransom, armed robbery, trafficking in persons, illicit drug and illegal arms.

“And it is difficult to tackle because today in Nigeria, over 800 civil society organisations that ought to speak against these ills have government links. They are the people spoiling the work of civil society organisations. They are being funded by the government and therefore can’t challenge any evil action by the government.”

Umeagbalasi, therefore, called on  the few independent civil society organisations and media to wake up to their duties and ensure that these ills are stopped.

We’re being treated like slaves at checkpoints — S’East road users

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200,000 repentant terrorists surrender, drop arms in North East – CDS

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Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa

200,000 repentant terrorists surrender, drop arms in North East – CDS

The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, has disclosed that about 200,000 repentant terrorists have so far dropped their arms and surrendered to troops in the North East, noting that the twin strategy of kinetic and non-kinetic operations was responsible for this achievement.

The CDS made this known at the Security and Justice Symposium organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in collaboration with the British High Commission, which began at the National Counterterrorism Centre in Abuja on Tuesday.

He disclosed that the theme of the symposium, ”Securing Peace, Ensuring Justice, Protection, Conduct, and Accountability,” speaks volumes about the deluge of security challenges the armed forces and security agencies are facing.

His words, “All the challenges we are facing today have to do with fairness, equity, justice, and accountability.

“There will not be peace without justice, equity, fairness, and accountability. In our operations, we are conducting both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies, which have to a large extent yielded significant successes, and we want to particularly thank the National Security Adviser for his great support in this regard.

“Nigeria is going through so many challenges, and we feel we’re able to address this, and everybody has a sense of belonging. A lot of the security challenges we are having, we are sure, will go down. I want to thank the National Security Advisor for all the support he’s given us, both the kinetic and the non-kinetic.

“We have said it; the kinetic aspect is just less than 30%. The non-kinetic has a lot to play. The non-kinetic, because when you have democracy, people must have the evidence of democracy. As long as it tells people to sleep well and be peaceful, and they are hungry, their children cannot eat, and all this creates more problems.

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“The issue of informants. We have to look at how we tackle this issue of informants. Because these are the people who have created the issue.

200,000 repentant terrorists surrender, drop arms in North East – CDS

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Robbers kill two members in shoot-out with Delta police

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Robbers kill two members in shoot-out with Delta police

The spokesperson for the police in Delta State, SP Bright Edafe, has confirmed the death of two robbery suspects in the state.

Mr Edafe, who disclosed this to journalists on Tuesday in Warri, said that the deceased were killed from the bullets shot by their gang members.

According to him, the incident occurred on Wednesday at Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area of the state.

Mr Edafe explained that the deceased were leading the police surveillance team attached to the Ekpan Division to their hideout when they were caught during a shoot-out.

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“The suspects were arrested at Effurun roundabout with a bag containing 57 live cartridges and other items. They were leading the surveillance team to their hideout at Warri/Sapele road when their gang members, on sighting the vehicle of the police team, engaged them in a shootout.During the gun duel, the arrested suspects that were leading the police team were fatally wounded by the gun shot of their colleagues. The two injured suspects were taken to the hospital and later died while receiving treatment,” he said.

Mr Edafe said that items recovered from the hoodlums hideout included: one English pump action gun, one locally made cut-to-size gun and eight live cartridges.

Others were: six iPhones, Smart phones and a Rolex wrist watch.

He said that the command had intensified manhunt on the fleeing members of the gang.

 

Robbers kill two members in shoot-out with Delta police

(NAN)

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Akwa Ibom businessman abducted, driver killed, police orderly injured

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Dr. Samuel Ekerenam
Akwa Ibom businessman abducted, driver killed, police orderly injured
Gunmen kidnapped a prominent businessman, Dr. Samuel Ekerenam and k!lled his driver in Eket town, the headquarter of Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
Ekerena, the owner of Hephzibah Mall, was abducted about 10:00pm on Saturday, 23 November, 2024.
It was gathered that the gunmen trailed the victim to the shopping complex, shooting sporadically to scare the passers-by away before whisking him away to an unknown destination.
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The body of Ekerenam’s driver was discovered in the pool of his blood, while his police orderly was severely wounded in the gun attack.
The spokesperson of the State Police Command, ASP Timfon John, who confirmed the incident on Monday, November 25, said the Commissioner of Police, CP Joseph Eribo has deployed tactical operatives to comb for the abducted businessman.
The PPRO added that the police were on top of the game and very soon the kidnap victim would be rescued and the perpetrators made to face the full weight of the law.

Akwa Ibom businessman abducted, driver killed, police orderly injured

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