Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Some youths and motorists in Rivers State are happy at the disappearance of police roadblocks on their roads since the end of the protests.
Some of the youths, who spoke to TPCN on Monday, November 9, 2020, claimed that the protests have ushered in a new era of sanity, peace and freedom for motorists and commuters who they said no longer face incessant harassment and extortion from the policemen manning the different checkpoints across the state.
They also claimed that since the end of the protests, they have not heard much of kidnapping and armed robbery attacks on passengers on the roads, wondering whether the message of the protest cries of the Nigerian youths also found a place in the hearts of the perpetrators of such crimes majority of who they said are also their fellow youths.
Patrick, a business centre operator at Rumuola, Port Harcourt, said he was surprised to see that the Port Harcourt-Owerri Road is now free of police checkpoints, with traffic flowing the way it should, which made it possible for him to reach Owerri within two hours.
Patrick further explained: “If it was before, we would have spent four hours or more on that road because of the many checkpoints on that road. You know there used to be more than twenty police checkpoints from Omagwa to Omerelu and at each checkpoint, they will stop and collect money from the buses. If the driver delays in bringing the money they will force him to come down and all that will cause a delay. But to my greatest surprise, I didn’t see a single police checkpoint when I travelled to Owerri on Saturday. The only people I saw were the soldiers and they were just there to maintain security. They were not collecting money from any vehicle, so there was no delay at all. The journey was very smooth. Imagine that I left Port Harcourt by 7 p.m. and got to Owerri by 9:02 p.m. on a weekend. You know how busy that road used to be on a weekend. If it was before, we will enter Owerri around 11 p.m. My brother, it could be because of this protest o.”
Asked if he was aware that the protests were at a point hijacked by hoodlums believed to be members of IPOB in Oyigbo, Rivers State, Patrick said: “Yes, I heard it on radio and also saw in the TV what they did there. Honestly, I felt bad about it because that was not the initial intention of the protesters. Those hoodlums spoilt the protest because what we saw on TV at the beginning of the protest were youths, women, men, movie stars, musicians and all those who had suffered in the hands of SARS and they were only carrying placards, nothing like weapons and they were ready to stay on the roads hungry, asking the federal government to scrap SARS. But those hoodlums just came to spoil the whole thing. Thank God they have arrested some of them. But my happiness is that the roads are now free unlike before. Please let it remain free like this.”
For Mike, a barbing salon owner popularly known as MJ, the absence of police checkpoints Port Harcourt roads and the fact that no major issue of insecurity has been witnessed since the end of the protests show that the residents can survive without the police.
According to Mike, who said he hails from Omoku but was born and brought up in Obio/Akpor, all that the government needs to do to sustain the current level of peace and harmony in the city is to encourage community policing in all neighbourhoods to complement the work of the policemen.
Mike added: “Since the protests ended, I’ve not heard of any crime anywhere, whether stealing or kidnapping, even in Diobu where I stay now. The vigilante boys are doing a great job, even in the absence of policemen, especially since after the endSARS protest. It shows we can survive without the policemen. Why I’m saying this is because the level of harassment has reduced; no more unnecessary gunshots and blowing of siren. Everywhere is calm.
“All we need now is for government to support community policing in every community because the vigilante guys know the bad boys and where to fish them out. So, the bad boys are also careful because they know that there is no hiding place for them because the vigilante boys know them in and out. So they’re behaving themselves and we’re all having peace. This is what we want. Government should support community policing and also support the jobless youths, maybe with small skills acquisition and small soft loan so that they will be doing something. When everybody is doing something and earning money, nobody will even have time to think of evil not to talk of committing it.”
Although TPCN has confirmed that police checkpoints have disappeared from most roads in Port Harcourt, with many police officers, including traffic wardens, now appearing in mufti, motorists are still not allowed free movements near police stations in volatile areas such as Mile 3 and Mile 1, Port Harcourt.
For instance, most vehicles plying the UST-Olu Obasanjo link road are stopped and checked in front of Mile 3 Police Station while Ikwerre Road from Emenike Junction to Mile 1 Police Station and part of Moscow road close to the headquarters of the Rivers State Police Command are blocked.
TPCN gathered that the reason for this may not be unconnected with the recent EndSARS protest
