* Seeks dismantling of ‘pay point’ road blocks
The leadership of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja has decried the “mercantile activities” of police personnel on South East roads and lamented the hardship the people of the area go through while undertaking journeys across the zone.
A delegation of the Igbo ethnic group took its complaint to the Chairman of Police Service Commission, Dr. Solomon Arase, on Thursday.
They frowned at the extortion by police men and the indiscriminate road blocks that has become worrisome.
They specifically requested the dismantling of all “fee-paying road blocks” in the South East zone, especially ahead of the Yuletide season.
Arase, who promised to take up the matter with the Inspector General of Police, also used the occasion to plead with the leadership of Ohanaeze to intervene in the incessant killing of policemen in the zone.
Arase said: “The killings of police officers in the South East is becoming worrisome. They are being killed everyday; and they should let the killers know that the police is not their enemy. They (police personnel) have not done anything wrong. The Force has lost quite a number of serving officers in the South East.
“We are your friends, stop making Police wives widows, they are your sisters” he noted.
Arase said the problem of the South East is that of identity crisis, adding that, ”we have resolved the perceived marginalisation of the zone in the Police representation in the country.
The leader of the delegation, Elder (Barr) Onwu Arua, President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo FCT chapter said the organization is worried that the Igbo have not shown interest in the ongoing recruitment exercise for constables into the Police Force.
Araua, however, called for a more elaborate plan in police r apparatus to redress the disadvantages of South East in the Nigeria police structure.