Police:

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo says the recent increase of security checkpoints in the Southeast geopolitical zone was a ploy to harass and exploit the people of the area who would return en masse for the Christmas festivities.

But Anambra State chairman, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, in a press statement  maintained that the group would not allow the situation to continue.

The statement reads in part, “As we step into December, the month of festivities, with higher numbers of our people returning for the holidays, the number of check points have started increasing.  We know that the target is our people who are returning.

“In the past we had asked that the harassments these checkpoints present should be addressed. The authorities would claim that they are dismantling them, but their numbers continue increasing. We condemn the practices.

“We’re not in a war. Police, Customs, Soldiers, and other security agents have formed the habit of mounting check points to extort our people.  It does not matter whether people have their complete vehicle particulars, or can account for the goods that they have.

“They are treated like criminals, harassed, embarrassed, delayed from their journeys, all in the bid to make them part with money.  It is mostly in Anambra State that these checkpoints are mounted, or on roads that our people pass.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo condemns these practices in their entirety.  While it is important that the security agencies do their work, part of that work is not embarrassing travelers and extorting them.  It is totally unacceptable to us.”

But the group said it is working with security agencies to end the harassment by establishing telephone numbers that travelers can call when security agencies make illegal demands on them.

He also asked the leadership of the security agencies to call their men to order and stop harassments of travelers.