Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) who still allow policemen under their commands to engage in mounting illegal road blocks will soon be eased out of the Police Force in Nigeria.
This decision is sequel to the findings of the authorities of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) that, in spite of the order of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Sunday Ehindero, on his men to dismantle all road blocks in the country, policemen in various states still engage in mounting road blocks through which they extort money from motorists and motorcyclists.
Sunday Independent reliably gathered that the leadership of FRSC will soon make its findings in this regard available to President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is said to have earlier given his approval before the IGP pronounced that road blocks in the country be dismantled.
The FRSC authorities are said not to be comfortable with the fact that months after the Inspector-General issued the order, the level of compliance among policemen has been very minimal.
They are said to have been terribly shocked to find out that in Imo State, for instance, road blocks by policemen are on the increase instead of being phased out completely.
The chairman of the Board of FRSC, Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe, was conferred with an award by his Arondizeogu community recently and the occasion attracted the bigwigs in the Commission who stormed the place with 16 FRSC official vehicles.
The presence of the Road Safety men did not deter the police road blocks operators from carrying on with their business.
According to a senior FRSC top shot who made the trip, within Njaba area alone, a distance of less than five kilometres, there were close to 10 road blocks. �Not even our presence could frighten them. The irony of the whole thing is that these illegal road blocks are not safety compliant. Our finding shows that most of road accidents in Nigeria are caused by these road blocks,� he said.
The official recalled also that a journalist, Agaptus, who died recently in Imo State, was actually knocked down by a vehicle that was trying to dodge a police road block.
When contacted, FRSC chairman, Mbadiwe, neither confirmed nor denied the move to secure a presidential approval to impose disciplinary measures on Police officers who are still mounting road blocks.
He rather said that the Commission is going step up its campaign against road blocks on Nigerian highways.
�In our resolve to ensure safety of our roads, we are not going to relent in dismantling any obstacle. Mr. President gave us the mandate to rid the nation of road mishaps and anything that obstructs this will not be tolerated,� he said.