Following thorough monitoring of the activities of police officers within Aba and its environs, facts are out to prove that the Ndiegoro Police Division (Cameroun Barracks) and the Eziama Police Division are currently making life unbearable for residents of Aba.
News Echo reports that from East Street to Ngwa Road, one of the jurisdictions of the Ndiegoro Police Division, the officers of the station now mount three different checkpoints for extortionist activities.
With one located just a few metres away from their station at Cameroun Road by East Street, another one at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church at Etche Road by East Street, another one is also located around Ulasi Street.
In those three different checkpoints, the officers of the Ndiegoro Police Division are busy extorting tricycle riders, bus drivers and other residents of different amounts with boldness.
A resident, Ekene Emordi said that the activities of the police officers from the Ndiegoro Police Division should be looked into and called on Abia State Commissioner of Police to call the DPO there to order.
“They stopped the nonsense after some journalists reported the matter two months ago, but since last week, they’ve come out boldly again.
“Nobody is against police standing on the road here, but why must they be collecting N100 from every tricycle and bus from all the loading bays in this area?
“Yes, this place is the zone of cultists and police presence is necessary, but must police collect money from us to protect us? Are they not been paid salaries?
“We even read the other day that their salaries have been increased by 20% which will take effect from next year.
“Why are they this greedy? Especially this Ndiegoro Police where every DPO who comes here see transporters as his workshop. What’s wrong with the police?
In a similar situation, the Eziama Police Division which of recent is now known for all manner of illegal activities including the recent rape of an Abia Polytechnic female Student has intensified its own extortionist activities.
From Ahia-Udele axis to Georges Street by Aba/Ikot-Ekpene Highway, the officers of the station are seeing extorting motorists of their hard-earned money with reckless abandon.
One activity the station now derives joy in getting into is the issue of searching people’s bags and phones between Onyeador Close and Aba Waterside Bridge, Ogbor-Hill.
“Immediately it’s 6:30 pm the Eziama Police Division officers will become like wild dogs at the Waterside Bridge. I wonder who gave the police this order of searching bags and phones.
“If they just see a young man who looks clean and dressed well, they’ll start harassing the person. This station is supposed to be more serious in police considering the seriousness of the area where it’s located but I don’t think police officers at the station wants to serve.
“They just want to make money and that’s a pity. See what they do to youths here every evening and nobody is saying anything,” Mr. Chukwuemeka Aneke, a butcher at Ahia-Udele said.
The residents demand that the Divisional Police Officers in charge of the Ndiegoro Police Division and the Eziama Police Division be called to order so they can teach their boys how to police professionally.
Efforts to reach Abia Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) SP Geoffrey Ogbonna to react to the situation failed as his mobile line failed to connect.
