The House of Representatives has charged the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, to remove all police and military checkpoints along various roads across the country.
This is as the House mourned victims of last Sunday’s ghastly accident in Anambra, allegedly caused by a police checkpoint.
The Green chamber also mandated its Committee on Works to probe the status of various road concessions and report back to it within two weeks for further legislative actions.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Ifeanyi Momah “on the need to investigate the loss of many lives along the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway, within Ihiala Federal Constituency” on Wednesday.
Momah, in his motion, noted that for over two years, there have been military and police checkpoints along the ihiala-Onitsha-Owerri express road, in Anambra State, as a result of insecurity in the area.
Nevertheless, the lawmaker added that road users in the area are often subjected to degrading and inhumane treatment occasioned by the security personnel manning the checkpoints.
He said commuters, including children, are usually forced to alight from their cars and raise their hands to pass through the checkpoints.
Momah explained that on November 4, an accident involving three vehicles on the Onitsha-Owerri-Ihiala road, claimed the lives of three children and six adults, as the driver, upon sighting the police checkpoint, tried to apply the brake but could not, thus, resulting in the fatal accident.
He added that on November 28, a trailer carrying a container load of goods ran over 20 public road users who died on the spot.
The lawmaker stated that “military and police checkpoints are located in the middle of the busiest road in the entire local government area, opposite Abbot Boys Secondary School, Ihiala, and opposite Ihiala Divisional Police headquarters, both located within the same axis, an area that ought not to be associated with a military checkpoint.
However, Yusuf Gagdi, in his contribution, noted that while activities of security agencies must be checked, citizens must be cautioned not to take laws into their own hands, when they feel aggrieved by the actions of security personnel.
