New Telegraph

Reps to IGP: Remove illegal roadblocks

The House of Representatives has asked the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to direct his men to dislodge all illegal roadblocks set up by them across the country. The call was consequent upon the adoption of a motion titled ‘Need to Investigate Loss of So Many Lives Along the Onitsha-Owerri Express Road Within Ihiala Federal Constituency,’ sponsored by Hon. Ifeanyi Momah.

Leading debate on the motion, Momah lamented that the prevalence of roadblocks along the Onitsha-Owerri highway has resulted in a series of avoidable accidents. He said: “Road users have since been subjected to devastating, degrading and inhumane treatment occasioned by the operation of the military and police checkpoints in that area. Being a major express road, the negative impact of this military checkpoint has been grave on the community as well as all the road users. “In this menace, no one is spared; all suffer under the weight of the oppression. Men, women and children are forced to alight from their cars and raise their hands and pass through the checkpoint.”

Continuing, the lawmaker lamented that: “Nursing and pregnant women are also not spared. In fact, nursing mothers are made to carry their babies up high as they walk across the checkpoint, sometimes being forced to walk for over one kilometre. “Very recently, a pregnant woman on a bike was whipped thoroughly at the military checkpoint. Traditional rulers are also stopped and searched in an embarrassing manner, including ransacking of their traditional attire.”

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