Article published in The Nation Newspaper

21/07/2010

SECURITY ALERT: Who will STOP this ‘LGA Sponsored Terrorism? What will NASS and the security services do to Save Our Souls, SOS, from this terrorism, the vicious attack by ‘wayward and illegally scheming’ LGA government officials enforcing stupid ‘By-Laws’ to under false pretences ‘kidnap’ Citizen Nigeria from the highway and detain and extort money? Is the police checkpoint not enough burden on Citizen Nigeria? One word can stop it – a Jonathan word to the IG! This ‘official highway robbery and kidnap’ is injustice, embarrassing to governors and a crime against the Citizen and the economy. Can we set us a website list of the offending LGAs and Chairmen and boycott their LGAs? Who will lift this LGA curse on Nigeria? Instead of developing the LGAs, they are destroying it. The LGA tier of government should be disbanded if this is all it offers.  

The EFCC and ICPC should investigate LGA minutes of meetings’ and prosecute all LGA Chairmen who decided to create this economic sabotage against Citizen Nigeria and the state. Are budget and contracts not enough? Citizen Nigerian, beware is being highjacked by the army of illegitimate LGA ‘recycled thugs’. These highjackers sometimes with a yellow/green arm band sewn by neighbourhood tailors, are remote controlled by criminal LGA Chairmen. Because I am often mistaken for ‘white’, ‘Indian’, ‘foreign’ or ‘oyibo’ depending on the ‘sunshade’ used, I get many unsolicited offers of ‘arrest’ or ‘illegal detention’ which are  ‘legalised kidnap’ from ‘The Federal Highway’ by these LGA ‘robbers in uniform’ or ‘official kidnappers’. By targetting ‘foreign’ looking persons and out of town business people the authorities are allowing ‘terrorism to triumph over tourism policy’. It was not as bad as this even during the civil war. States and LGA must choose ‘Tout Terrorism or Tourism?’

No tourism can survive in the face of organised ‘Traffic Terrorism’ by LGA sponsored touts. I have already recounted my bitter past experience at Asejire and Ogere in this column but things are worse. Just today my  car was accosted at both Ogere and Challenge, Ibadan within eyeshot of impotent, conniving or inactive police. Who empowered touts to block Federal Trunk A roads- Ogere or Challenge Expressway road, a Federal Highway to intimidate and forcible rob Citizens Nigeria?

This is ‘LGA terrorism’. They surround the car sometimes armed with nail-spiked wooden poles as if the ‘so-called transgressor’ is an environmental hazard, a danger to the community or an illegal alien and not a legal Citizen Nigeria. Wearing a fake official armband and unreadable expired ID card they intimidate you to leave the road, all within feet of real police who feign innocence of the kidnap episode. No wonder as they are busy ‘chopping’ at their own checkpoint. They invent ‘crimes’, ‘detain on trumped-up charges’ and then fine you or cart you off to some seedy ‘office’ in a motor park or LGA HQ for extortion. All is fake as you get a fake receipt for your fake crime. States should know that this activity frightens away and ruins LGA and state business and economic prospects. Many people have sworn not to travel again. This is quite apart from the mental trauma on ‘attacked’ victims. Enough is enough. What next for Citizen Nigeria? A tax on air we breath in your state?

If your LGA chairman participates in this crime, petition EFCC and NASS against him. Let us see if he enjoys a public hearing on the minutes of his criminal meetings. Discipline him at party meetings. He should be suspended and impeached for ‘Anti- Citizen Nigeria Activities’ and for criminalising Citizen Nigeria. ‘LGA Highway Thuggery’ is the same as the despicable kidnapping of journalists for ransom. It is not a joke or ‘petty crime’ to prevent Citizen Nigeria and foreigners with hard foreign exchange to invest or spend from reaching destinations in happy travel tranquility. Travel on our highways is now a terrifiying unpredicatable experience due to government personnel- police taking checkpoint charges and touts terrorising us.

In fact we stood up to them and we received applause demonstrating that the revolution is imminent as all Citizens Nigeria are tired of this low-life Mafia style flagrant extortion. Come on government –stop these trainee Highway robbers. Tomorrow, these vipers biting Citizens Nigeria will mutate into an army of election rigging ‘political thugs’ or ‘hardened armed robbers and kidnappers’ reflecting badly on police, state governors and LGAs. Come 2011, Citizen Nigeria must face them and vote out LGA perpetrators of illegality. And IG, stop police taking checkpoint money.

Many states are nearly ‘NoGo’ areas from such abuses. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, talked of 67 checkpoints in the South East. Police mop up about N1b+ a month at an underestimated N3,000 x 1000 checkpoints ie N3,000,000 mis-takes/day or N12m+/annum excluding bail-and –‘oga-thankyou’ etc.

President Jonathan, give every new IG your ‘FIFA Ban’ – a 1 week ‘Stop Checkpoint/LGA tout Corruption Order’ or face retirement. After three IGs we get a good CP/ AIG team and zero road corruption before 1-10-2010, Nigeria@50.

Meanwhile instead of opening or sponsoring a permanent Nigerian Diamond Bank Museum/Exhibition of Space, Science and Technology, Diamond Bank PLc and its shareholders unfortunately ‘proudly’ prefer the Cadbury model of sending  ‘young winners’ to the better caring UK/Dubai to see foreign corporate sponsored museums serving UK/Dubai children. Shame! Please build for Nigerian Youth, something better than the MTN Science Centre in South Africa.