A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, has called on the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, to dismantle roadblocks manned by police personnel in Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia and Anambra states.
HURIWA, in a statement on Saturday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the menace of illegal checkpoints by policemen and their constant extortion of South-Easterners must be checked.
The group was reacting to the accident at Azia in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra on Friday which affected about 67 persons.
The group alleged that the presence of corrupt policemen on extortion spree had been responsible for the extrajudicial killings of drivers in many parts of Nigeria.
HURIWA described as horrific, the most recent auto crash that happened on Friday, February 18, 2022, close Azia Junction, by the Ihiala–Onitsha Expressway, in which a truck rammed into six vehicles at a police checkpoint before landing on a bus filled with passengers.
According to HURIWA, the Friday accident was just one out of many, adding that “Some parts of Anambra including the Onitsha-Owerri Road, Idemili, Obosi, Oba, and other parts of the entire South-East are notorious for police checkpoints and extortions,” the group said, adding that no fewer than 30 persons had been killed at police checkpoints in the South-East between January and February 2022.
“HURIWA is pained that security agents who ought to be the first law enforcement officers are flagrantly disobeying the judgement of a law court declaring the illegality of roadblocks in the South-East.
“It is even more lamentable that extortions go on at these roadblocks by police officers and the IGP has turned a blind eye to the menace. Without any iota of doubt, the police have not learnt any lessons from the EndSARS nationwide protests against police brutality and extrajudicial killings in October 2020.
“The Nigeria Police Force and the Police Service Commission must begin instant reforms to reposition the Force for better policing. Also, HURIWA call for the investigation of illegal police killings of civilians and for the constitutional independence of the PSC to be maintained if we ever hope to build a professional policing institution in Nigeria that would operate by the principle of rule of law and adherence to fundamental human rights provisions of the Constitution.
“There must also be severe sanctions for corrupt officers who, whilst coercing drivers to purloin them of money, lead them to their early graves. The IGP should wake up from his daylight slumber and disband these good-for-nothing roadblocks and call his men to order.”
