16th May, 2017
Rivers Police Command has warned that it would arrest and prosecute anybody caught blocking road and collecting money from motorists.
The command’s spokesman, Mr Nnamdi Omoni, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) disclosed in Port Harcourt on Tuesday that it was illegal for anybody to block road and extort money from motorists.
“It is illegal for any civilian to block any road.
“It is worst if it involves collection of money; you can see that the Inspector-General of Police (IG) has banned police check points in the country,’’ Omoni said.
More that 20 boys and girls had on Tuesday armed themselves with machetes and sticks, and blocked Tap road in Obio/Apkor Local Government Area.
A commercial bus drivers, Mr John Eze, said that they had intimidated motorists with their cutlasses and collected illegal tolls from them.
He said that the they grouped themselves into four and stayed at different positions, collecting money from the drivers.
He said that the youths collected between N50.00 and N100.00 per vehicle on the road.
A civil servant caught in the traffic jam caused by the youths, Mr Chidi Nnam, said that they told passengers who questioned their illegal ‘’toll’’ that ‘’this is where we cut our own share of the national cake.’’
The drivers took the road to avoid traffic jam on the dilapidated Enugu-Oyigbo- Port Harcourt dual carriage way.
The dual carriage way was dotted with huge potholes and flooded too.