The recent disclosure by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe, that security personnel manning checkpoints on the nation’s highways are responsible for the high cost of goods may sound like a flimsy alibi but these are some of the contributory factors, besides the high cost of diesel now selling for N300 per litre.
Appearing before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Ogbe did not mince words in his accusation. He maintained that persistent extortions by men of the Nigeria Police, their counterparts in the Army and Customs Service from truck drivers conveying farm produce from the hinterlands to urban centres under the guise of carrying out security checks are responsible for the high cost of the goods.
He said that based on the complaints by truck drivers, his ministry wrote to the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and heads of the other security agencies to wean their operatives from the negative practice but the situation has remained unchanged.
The minister also fingered the ECOWAS treaty on free movement of goods and services among the member states which gives room for the movement of over 300,000 trucks of grains outside Nigeria daily as another major factor which is beyond his ministry’s control. Then, there is the greed and rebellion on the part of many farmers who resist any move to bring down the prices of food items because of the heavy returns they make presently.
Worsening this scenario are the unholy activities that define our checkpoints. But it cannot be disputed that checkpoints are a crime prevention strategy in a society where criminal activities are prevalent on the highways as they are being witnessed all over the country. For instance, most incidents of kidnapping and armed robbery occur on the highways. The presence of security personnel along the highways is supposed to assure road users of the safety of their lives and belongings.
In a similar vein, security presence on the highways helps in regulating the conduct of careless drivers who over-speed and overload their vehicles, thereby endangering the lives of their passengers.
However, in the recent past, accusations and reports of extortion by motorists, especially the commercial drivers, led to the dismantling of checkpoints by successive inspectors-general of police upon assuming duties. But the checkpoint ban has defied implementation. They now come in different names. According to a recent nationwide survey, the police high command insisted that checkpoints remain banned all over the country. In their place are what they call “stop and search” or “motorised road block”.
The latter entails blocking one lane of the road to stop vehicles for security search.
A recent survey revealed that where the stop and search operation is carried out, as little as between N20 and N50 is all that is needed to earn a wave-on from the security personnel. It is when these gestures are not forthcoming that the motorists are subjected to all manner of scrutiny including vehicle particulars and windscreen cracks. The danger of thesepetty extortions on the highways is that the criminals that those manning the highways are there to stop can pay their way through. Kidnappers and armed robbers can offer mouthwatering tips to security personnel in order to get away with their crimes.
Policemen on the highways are known to be happy takers of bribery. Small wonder, soldiers, Customs, Road Safety and Civil Defence personnel assigned to duties on the highways have also been corrupted. The involvement of soldiers in road operations is understandable owing to the sophistication of criminal activities on our highways. But the sight of soldiers demanding tips on the highways demeans their noble and highly respected profession.
Given the current state of security challenges which have overwhelmed the police, soldiers have been sucked in to maintain law and order.
While stop and search or motorised road blocks have become inevitable on our highways, we call on the appropriate authorities to ensure that the checkpoint operators carry out their duties within the ambit of the law. It will not be out of place to send plainclothes security agents to chance in on the checkpoints with a view to fishing out the bad eggs in their midst. Checkpoints riddled with corruption are an exercise in futility.
