Group solicits NURTW, road users’ support to curb police extortion in southeast

A civil Society Organisation, Youth and Students Advocates for Development Initiative (YSAD) has advised commercial drivers and other road users to approach court to enforce their rights against extortion by the police and other security personnel in the country, especially in southeast region.

Chief Executive Officer of YSAD, Obinna Nwagbara, gave the charge in a communique issued, yesterday, at the end of its one-day sensitisation workshop on human rights and traffic rules organised for National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and other stakeholders.

Nwagbara alleged that most security personnel operating in Southeast states have derailed from their responsibilities and constituted themselves as nuisance to members of the public through their illegal activities and behaviours.

He urged NURTW members and other road users to always obey traffic rules, update their vehicles certificates, to remain law abiding citizens and report incidence of extortion to appropriate authorities.

He stressed that efforts to curb illegal activities of security personnel, especially on the roads remained a collective responsibility of well-meaning and concerned citizens, adding that YSAD was committed to playing vital roles to end the menace.

He said: “No law enforcement officers ,whether the police, army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) or Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) have business converting their uniforms, vehicles, guns and other work tools into articles of oppression.

“YSAD could not come to terms with the tragedy of accepting that it is okay for law enforcement officers, paid from the public coffers with people’s tax, to turn around and become extortionists to the very same people who employed them in the ideal sense of it.

“We insist that it is unacceptable for those paid to maintain law and order, guarantee the safety of road users, prevent criminality and ensure smooth flow of traffic to turn around and demand bribes from hardworking Nigerians whether they are commercial drivers or just private individuals driving their vehicles.”

Also, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Abia State, Uche Ihediwa (SAN), and the keynote speaker, Dr, Ahamefula Amaramiro, urged citizens to explore existing laws to enforce their rights when infringed upon.

They charged citizens to quit the attitude of abandoning the enforcement of their rights on divinity, stressing that they have the liberty to enforce rights through the court to ensure that the offenders are corrected and redirected properly.

Ihediwa said: “There are good laws enough to protect our human rights in this country. But the problem is that we sit in our homes, saying let’s leave it to God when our rights are infringed and the aberration continues. We must enforce our rights.”

“It was inability of people whose rights have been infringed upon to approach the court that makes it difficult for the offending officers to be brought to book,” Amaramiro added.