Ben Dunno, Warri
A Rght Activist and Vice President of the Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) Dr. Kehinde Taiga, has lamented the extortion of traders, especially members of the Pigs Traveller Association, by security operatives, mostly policemen and soldiers mounting checkpoints on the highway from the Northern to Southern part of the country.
Making his grievances known in an open letter addressed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt. General Tukur Buratai, he urged the duo to call their men manning checkpoints along the routes from north to south to order, in order to reduce the burden of the poor traders.
He noted the members of the Association were made to pay N2000 on each truck load oonveying their pigs, adding they usually meet over twenty (20) checkpoints from where they buy from in the North till they get to their destinations in the South.
According to the Activist who was the immediate past Chairman of Delta state chapterof CDHR, said this extortion of traders must not be allowed to continue as its becoming a huge burden on the traders who in turn pushes the extra cost on the consumers, thereby making pork meats very expensive.
“This lawlessness on the highway from the north to the south by the security operatives who manned these checkpoints must not be allowed to continue aa it is making life unbearable to these pig traders who were subjected to extra burden settlements on the highway by security operatives”
“I am therefore using the medium to call on the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt.Gen. Buratai and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu, to as a matter of urgency call their men in all these checkpoints to order by sending a signal to them to put an end to the extortions”.
“It is only when they desist from extorting the traders who come from southern part of the country to the north to buy pigs sold as pork meats in the other parts of the country that the business would become lucrative for these traders”.
“This is no time to continue to play lips service to the atrocities caused by the security operatives on the highway against the traders, adding that the hardship inflicted on the traders by the police and soldiers on the highway was becoming unbearable”, he stated.