Transporters of perishable goods under the banner of the Truck and Bus Association of Nigeria have forewarned that the southeast zone states risk a food crisis if the thugs who collect money, beat up drivers, commando their vehicles and goods were not checked on time.
They further announced that the activities of the monetary thugs were behind the increasing cost of food materials in the zone as the consumers now bear the brunt of the attacks. The protesting transporters who blocked the road at Lokpanta Umunneochi L.G.A, Abia State, along the Enugu – Port Harcourt expressway, stated that more than 5 drivers had perished and 3 vehicles had been stolen by thugs who beat up drivers and destroyed their cars over lack of payment of what has been described as illegal fees on federal highways.
Mr. Okezie Okeke, Chairman of the Association had confessed that there were more than two thousand revenue checkpoints all over the federal highways in the southeast zone manned by thugs who collect over twenty assorted levies, seize vehicles, and beat up drivers who fail to comply with what he described as illegal fees.
The chairman lamented that they have asked the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, who ordered the arrest of most of the thugs on the federal highways, but they nonetheless went back to their illegal activities within a few days. Some of the worst areas listed, where thugs mug drivers for refusing to pay illegal revenue are: Lokpanta, Obollo Afor, Okigwe junction, and Umuikaa junction, among others.
