NURTW Commends FG Over Dismantling Of Checkpoints

The Plateau chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has commended the Federal Government for ordering the dismantling of military checkpoints across the country.
The State Secretary of the Union, Mr Idris Adamu, told newsmen yesterday on Tuesday in Jos that the absence of the checkpoints would enhance the free flow of traffic.
Adamu, who said that vehicular movement would be less cumbersome now without the checkpoints, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for giving the directive.
“For us commercial drivers, we will now move without hindrance and without the extortion often witnessed at such checkpoints,” he said.
The secretary said that checkpoints were not actually serving the security purpose for which they were erected, adding that they had rather become security threat.
“Road blocks sometimes constitute security threats; for example in the North East Zone, many people have been killed at the checkpoints by suicide bombers.
“They should concentrate on intelligence and patrol which have helped more in apprehending culprits, individuals or groups that constitute security threat,” he stated.
An NURTW Trustee, Mr Austin Robert, also told reporters  that passengers were usually harassed at checkpoints by soldiers.
“There are instances where the union officials were called from checkpoints to intervene in military men and drivers rift due to no fault of the drivers or passengers.
“There was an instance in Kaduna where a commercial driver was injured by a military man in the name of accidental discharge,” he said.
A motorist, Mr Emmanuel Chukwuma, said  that the checkpoints were not needed in the first instance as they were unnecessary burden imposed on residents.
“The original intention was to check the spate of bombings occasioned by Boko Haram activities but their presence never deterred the bombers from getting to their targets to unleash mayhem.
“Instead the soldiers constituted themselves into bottlenecks in the free flow of traffic, detaining motorists without actually conducting any needed search.