BY VINCENT UJUMADU
AWKA—Anambra State-based, Human Rights group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, has said Nigeria saved about N4.63 billion from absence of police road blocks.
Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubarkar, ordered the dismantling of road blocks on assumption of office, a directive which the group said was a welcome development because, according to it, the police were using the check points to extort money from motorists.
Chairman of board of trustees of the group, Mr. Emeka Umeagbalasi, said the staggering amount was saved from about 3,500 road blocks that existed in the country before the ban.
Umeagbalasi observed, however, that there were still pockets of road blocks and extortion, especially on inter-city and trunk B roads across the country, particularly in the Southern part, in defiance of the directive of the IGP.
Details of the society's findings showed that in the South East zone, N3.120 billion was saved in the months of February and March 2012, adding that the breakdown indicated that in Anambra State with 400 roadblocks, N960 million was saved, while in Abia State which had 400 roadblocks, N960 million was also saved.
According to him, N720 million was saved in Imo State with 300 police roadblocks, N240 million in Enugu State with 200 roadblocks and N240 million in Ebonyi State also with 200 roadblocks.
The group's findings also showed that in the South-South zone with 500 police roadblocks, N600 million was saved on N20,000 average daily extortion proceeds per squad, while in the South West zone with 500 roadblocks, N600 million was saved.
Similarly, the group said that in the North-Central zone with 400 police roadblocks, N120 million was saved on daily extortion proceeds' average of N5,000.00 per squad used for the three zones in the North.
It also discovered that in the North West zone with 300 police roadblocks, N90 million was saved, while in the North East zone with 300 police roadblocks, N90 million was saved.
Umeagbalasi said: "Today, we can proudly say that our leading campaigns over the years regarding police corruption, especially roadblock extortion and associated negligent killings or extra-judicial killings and torture, were not in vain.
"Elated by towering responses from teeming Nigerian road users over this major policy change, Nigerians invited us back to the roads so as to count gains and losses so recorded as a result of this historic policy change.
"In responding to their holy request, our field personnel were deployed and they came back with cheering news to the effect that the gains outweighed the losses at extreme disparity levels. The losses were pockets of robbery and other violent attacks strongly believed to have been sponsored, or aided."
Vanguard Nigeria