The Nigerian Army has withdrawn its officers extorting motorists from a checkpoint along the Kainji-New Bussa highway in Mokwa, Niger State.
This comes three months after WikkiTimes exposed the extortion strategies used by operatives of the force. Hitherto, motorists were left to the mercy of the soldiers, who not only extorted but brutalised them when they failed to comply with the palm greasing practice.
READ: ‘NIN, Voter’s Card’ — Yet Another Extortion Strategy Used By Soldiers On Niger Highway
The secretary of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Mokwa, Ibrahim Mohammed, told WikkiTimes that the “monsters” have been withdrawn from the highway.
“Motorists and road users now ply the road with ease,” Mohammed said, adding they are now free from their “severe tortures and extortion” as they are no longer on the road.
He said they had pleaded with soldiers many times but to no success. “Instead, they keep making the already worse economy stiffer on us,” Mohammed added, praying the soldiers do not return to the highway.
READ: How Open Defecation By Truck Driver Ignited Gridlock, Tension On Niger Highway
The union’s scribe further extolled WikkiTimes for its selfless work in defending the vulnerable segment of society: “We are grateful to Almighty God and WikkiTimes.”
“They are glad they are no longer on the highway,” a bus driver simply identified as Ndaasebe whose physically-challenged brother had a dispute with the soldiers some months ago.
“My physically challenged brother gave them N200 expecting to get N150 change, but they gave him N100 instead,” Nadasebe added. “When he protested, they brutalised him.”
The spokesman of the union, Dogochi, as he preferred to be addressed, recalled when the soldiers killed a truck driver who denied them bribery. “Soldiers had shot a driver dead in this place just for a little money,” Dogochi said. According to him, their withdrawal from the road relieved the drivers.
“As our several pleas to them failed, we say thanks to WikkiTimes for their powerful story that led to the removal of the soldiers on the road,” Dogochi said.
When WikkiTimes reported the soldiers’ shady business on the highway to Onyema Nwachukwu, the spokesman for the Nigerian Army, in June, he avowed the matter would be treated.
