Business
Rivers Transporters Decry Police Extortion

The Drivers Transport Cooperative Union, Rivers State chapter has decried the incessant extortion and assault on its members by the Police in the state.
The President of the union, Comrade Binoye Sunday, who lamented about police illegal activities in a chat with newsmen in Port Harcourt last Friday, said members of the union were daily being assaulted, beaten and made to pay unjustified huge amount of money on the road.
He said the police activities amount to corruption and criminality with intention to inflict pains on law-abiding drivers and other citizens on the road.
According to him, members of the union were recently along Eliparanwo road axis of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state beaten and dispossessed of their belongings following the drivers’ refusal to adher to the police’s N50,00 and N20.00 extortion on the road.
He alleged that the anti-cultism unit of Eliparanwo Police Division extorts money from motorists as well as inflict pains on residents of the state.
Sunday said the gesture could lead to the breakdown of law and order in the area, if not promptly checked. The union president stressed that taxi drivers and motorists in the area were daily being arrested by police and made to pay N30,000 and N50,000 as bail over crimes not committed.
He explained that several cases of assault had been reported to the police command over the illegal activities of men of the command.
He therefore called on the Inspector General of Police, the state government to look into the plight of the transporters as a way to check the police activities and boost transportation in the state.
Enoch Epelle