By Abasi Ita, Calabar
Drivers plying the Calabar Ikom Ogoja highway, conveying foodstuff from the northern part of the country to the Cross River capital city of Calabar have appealed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba to wade in and save them from multiple extortion by policemen mounting the over forty checkpoints along the route.
According to the motorists, the passionate appeal has become imperative to keep them in business in order to sustain their families and checkmate the raising cost of foodstuffs in Calabar partly attributable to their ordeals on the road in the hands of Policemen.
Addressing journalists in Calabar, the National President of Delivery Vehicle Owners and Drivers Association of Nigeria, DELVAN, Comrade Raphael Sabastine contented that “unless the countless roadblocks erected for mainly for revenue generation purposes along the route are dismantled, the price of foodstuffs and other goods will remain on the increase since traders are under compulsion to maximise profits, in a bid to cover the cost of transportation inclusive of multiple extortion.
According to him, “It’s shocking that from Gakem, the border town between Cross River and Vandekya, in Benue, stretching to Tinapa Junction in Calabar, there are over 40 checkpoints mounted by mostly Police with the aide of the locals , who serves as enforcement agents, armed with iron spikes to ensure compliance. We part with at least a minimum of five thousand naira at each of these checkpoints
during every trip”.
“At Ndok Junction in Ogoja, the Policemen charge us per bag of rice, beans, tuber of yam or basket of tomatoes or onions. A bag of beans, rice or garri attracts two thousand naira each, yam is twenty naira per tuber, while onions and tomatoes are fixed at five hundred per basket .This police can keep you for hours to enable them verify your luggage just for their billing information.
“You will agree that there is no way the drivers will cough out that huge amount without transferring the burden to the traders who in turn will pass the cost to the final consumers who bears the brunt of the extortion”.
Narrating his experience at Ekajuk checkpoint, a DELVAN member, Mr Leo Iyok said he was compelled to part with thirty thousand naira after much pleadings having been billed sixty-eight thousand for a truckload of yams loaded in Benue.
“Without realising I have been cleared to move after payment, the local boys engaged by the Police blocked my truck with heavy tree trunk which they use as barricades leading to the fall of the vehicle and the destruction of the entire consignment. Right now I am raising money to pay the trader who owns the goods”
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer Cross River State Command, SP Irene Ugbo dismissed the allegations challenging the drivers to lodge a formal petition for proper investigations
“If they are sure of what they are saying, especially as regards Ndok Junction, they should make a formal report to the Command because I am not sure they have made any” she retorted.
Traders spoken to at Akim, Marian, Watt Markets and Etim Edem Parks all in Calabar corroborated the ordeals they are passing through along the route revealing that the Police officers at the dreaded Ndok Junction have been at the same beat for over three years indicating that they enjoy a tacit support from the Police high command.
