A Nigerian retired personnel has expressed horror at the destruction of “the revered image of the Nigerian military” by personnel manning checkpoints in Nigerian roads especially in South East region.
The veteran pleaded with retirees “close to the authorities” to “take up this, please.”
Narrating his encounters on his journey by road from Kaduna to Port Harcourt, he noted that when it comes to the Nigeria Police, “I don’t need to talk about the police. They have been swimming in extortion since time immemorial!”
The veteran, who prefers anonymity, said in a report posted in a military retirees platform, lamented “the high level of extortion by our combatants assigned to watch the highways.”
He stated that in all the checkpoints manned by Army, Navy and Air Force personnel, they are “shamelessly engaged in open extortion of motorists.”
According to the post: “I am on transit from Kaduna to PH right now. I left Kaduna at about 7am but I am yet to arrive PH; owing to terrible roads and unnecessary delays by military and police men on the highway. However, my utter agonies is centered on the the high level of extortion by our combatants assigned to watch the highways.
“Nearly all checkpoints manned by the Army, Naval and Air Force (NAF) personnel are shamelessly engaged in open extortion of motorists. I don’t need to talk about the police. They have been swimming in extortion since time immemorial!
“Apart from the checkpoint at Enugu-Ezike where all passengers are ordered to alight and track across from the beginning to the end of the checkpoint, every other checkpoint is virtually extorting.
“The one that is breaking my heart is the one being perpetrated by a Naval personnel at a checkpoint located after NN College of Finance and Accounts in Imo State.
“At that very checkpoint. The drivers will alight from his car, walk to a demigod and give N500 (no reduction)! It is the drivers that will open the improvised roadblock. It is still breaking my heart.
“It is so shameful that the noble job we left behind has been vastly enmeshed in miasmic moral rottenness. Those of close to the authorities should take up this, please. The disgrace is heartbreaking, my great Veterans.”