The Police Command in Akwa Ibom, says sanctions will be meted on security personnel allegedly extorting money from transporters in the state.
The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Odiko Macdon stated this in Uyo on Thursday. Macdon was reacting to an allegation that police and cultists extorted money from transporters in Akwa Ibom.
He said that the command condemned such acts in strong terms, adding that wherever such personnel or cultists were seen extorting money from transporters, drivers should make haste and contact police authority for immediate action.
He said that the command would commence ” very discrete investigations” into the matter so that the police would nip it in the bud.
“I will take it up with the Commissioner of Police and our Security Investigation Bureau will get to work because we will want to know especially if it has to do with the police. “We will want to know so that apart from nipping it in the bud, we can as well sanction those involved,” Macdon said.
He said: “If there is any iota of truth in the allegation that police and cultists collect security fees from transporters in the state, then it is unfortunate and we are not aware of any form of extortion being encountered by transporters.
“We expect that if the police or cult boys extort money from transporters in the state as security fees, that the transporters should come to the office and report officially to the police,” he said.
Macdon urged the Uyo Capital City and National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) to take steps to ensure that illegal parks within Uyo were disbanded.
He warned transporters to desist from illegal loading parks and waned against drivers parking by roadsides to pick passengers in the state.
“Unless the Uyo Capital City and NURTW rise up and do the needful, transporters should go to designated parks .
“If vehicles load outside designated parks, they are open to any form of extortion, that is why the allegation may be possible, I have not said it’s not true. “I am only saying that we are not aware and we have not been informed.
This is the first time I am hearing it and I am saying that those things are possible because of where the vehicles load, ” he said.
