Commercial Drivers Cry Out Over Excessive Extortion at Checkpoints

The illegal checkpoints are gradually rearing its ugly heads again on the major roads in and around Owerri Metropolis and the entire Southeast zone.

Two out of the three road checkpoints manned by the Soldiers are somewhat permanent because they are always there, whether, in the morning, night, rain, and the Soldiers do the work themselves. There are checkpoints mounted by the Policemen here and there, there are also ones mounted by Soldiers along Owerri/ Orlu road before Nwaorieubi roundabout, the one at FUTO junction along Owerri/Obinze road and that at Ararume junction Owerri along Owerri/Onitsha road.

However, the story is not the same with the road checkpoint manned by Soldiers at the Ararume junction Owerri along Owerri/Onitsha road especially the modus operandi in handling it.

At this checkpoint, the Soldiers arrive between 4:00 pm-4.30 pm every day and leave around 10 pm after the “PAY-PASS” duties on both sides of the road not minding the long queues they cause.
Perhaps, one interesting thing here is that the Soldiers who only stop bus drivers who ply the route. They don’t even search any of the vehicles at all.

They employ some touts who collect the hundred Naira(N100) tolls for them from bus drivers who ply the route. The touts are stationed at a corner of the road while the Soldiers who are merely supervising and selecting moving vehicles from the queues would stop a bus and direct the driver to the place where the touts are. The driver obediently moves down and gives the touts the money and goes.

Last Friday, around 7 pm, a bus driver who pleaded to be allowed to go because he had no hundred Naira to part with, having just finished repairing his bus, was subjected to frog jump by one of the Soldiers until he became unconscious. A young man, who dared to take pictures at the scene, had a beating of his life and his phone seized. As soon as the Soldiers saw what happened and the gathering crowd and the tongues wagging, they quickly entered their vans and zoomed off. The touts also disappeared.

The bus driver was, however, resuscitated by a Lady Nurse who was on another bus that stopped. The Lady was said to be returning from night duty.

It would be recalled that it was this same illegal checkpoint that Soldiers mounted at the peak of Covid-19 and were collecting three thousand Naira per trailer and hundred Naira per bus through the assistance of their employed touts. Commuters cried out then and they were dismantled.