Jonathan Nwokpor
Because checkpoints are used for criminal activity, the Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, urged the Defence Headquarters, or DHQ, and Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to demolish them throughout the Southeast on Friday.
Checkpoints in the Southeast are referred to by IPOB as “kill and bury,” and they are utilised to intimidate and coerce residents in the region.
Igbo commuters have reportedly experienced various forms of humiliation, torture, and enforced disappearances at military and police checkpoints in the Southeast, especially at the military checkpoint known as “kill and bury” located at Ukwu Orji along the Owerri/Onitsha motorway, according to IPOB spokesman Emma Powerful.
IPOB said in a statement signed by Powerful that kidnapping, armed robbery, and other criminal activities in the Southeast have not decreased despite the presence of military and police personnel at checkpoints.
According to Powerful: “The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by the great and indefatigable leader, Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu, raises alarm over the incessant military intimidation, harassment, and extortion at the “kill and bury” military checkpoint mounted at Ukwu Orji in Mbaitolu LGA along Owerri/Onitsha expressway.
“The soldiers at this particular checkpoint deliberately keep all the vehicles that get to the checkpoint at 10 pm to around 12 am until each vehicle pay them N5,000 before they can be allowed to pass to continue on their journey. Sometimes, after unnecessary delays and extortions by the soldiers at this checkpoint, the passengers are attacked and kidnapped on the way.
“The soldiers and police officers at this checkpoint are informants to kidnappers. They are professional armed robbers who use guns and uniforms issued by the Nigerian government to intimidate and force people to part with their money or be delayed till the next day or even be killed. Similar incidents happen in all the military, and police checkpoints scattered all over the South East Region.
“The uncountable number of army and police checkpoints collect N5,000 or more from each vehicle in the South East Region and make persons and vehicular movements difficult and expensive. The militarization of the South East Region is not only an intimidating and oppressive policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria and her murderous security agencies, but it is also a plan to occupy Biafra territory.
“The security agencies of Nigeria also contravene UN human rights commission rules regularly in carrying out their evil plans in Igboland. The Nigerian government’s economic strangulation policy against Ndigbo can be felt by all inhabitants of Igbo land. The excessive extortions at these military and Police checkpoints make the cost of goods and transportation exorbitant compared to other regions of their country. Holding passengers at gunpoint from 10 pm to 12 am is against fundamental human rights. All of that done in order to extort huge amounts of cash from travelers before allowing them to cross the army or police checkpoint. This shows that the Nigerian military is part of the criminality going on in Imo State and the entire South East Region.
“IPOB in the past has raised alarms that the military and police checkpoints in the East are part of the insecurity of kidnapping and car snatching gangs’ activities.
“The presence of these soldiers and police officers at various checkpoints has not reduced insecurity. Instead, the Nigerian soldiers at the checkpoints are humiliating, intimidating, raping our ladies, extorting money, and passing information to kidnappers. They are working with the kidnappers, who deliver shares of ransom collected from kidnapped victims to them.
“IPOB is calling on the Nigeria Defence Headquarters and the Chief of Army Staff to withdraw and dismantle the military checkpoints in the East particularly the checkpoint at Ukwu Orji on Owerri/Onitsha expressway if they care to maintain their remaining integrity. The Nigerian soldiers deployed at that checkpoint are part of the insecurity in the South East Region.
“Therefore, IPOB demands that the Nigerian Army and Police dismantle all the indiscriminately positioned criminal military and police checkpoints in the South East Region and the South South Region with immediate effect. We believe that their personnel have turned the checkpoints into something else. These checkpoints are fueling the anger of the people. The Nigerian Army and Police in the East must not wait till the people’s anger gets to boiling point before they allow Ndigbo to breathe. The Nigerian Army should never underestimate the reactions of angry and wounded persons. Biafra people and Biafra territory have endured a lot.”
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