Aba-based businessmen under the aegis of Aba Industrialists Association, AIA, Abia State, have cried out to the Inspector-General of Police, Idris Ibrahim, to save them from persisting extortion and harassment from police officers stationed at Oyingbo, Rivers State.

 In a 'Save Our Soul' petition sent to the IPG, the  Chairman of AIA, Emmanuel Obi stated that  “There is nothing the police officers don’t demand from the drivers conveying goods for them.  Even when our drivers present all the relevant vehicle papers including the invoice for the goods, they will demand for a paper they call “product permit” or “road permit” but there is nothing like that document, the police officers at Oyingbo just invented  that to extort money from the drivers and by extension us because we are the ones who eventually pay such money.”

 Obi explained that they are forced to appeal  to the IGP  because the situation had gone from bad to worse in recent weeks, adding that the policemen at Oyingbo had made it their custom to stop the trailers carrying raw materials or the finished goods of their members and keeping the trucks until they are ‘settled’.

  Obi further explained that  “Due to bad roads, some of our people that are bringing palm kernel from Cross River and Akwa Ibom States to Aba have to pass through Rivers State where policemen always harass them for no justifiable reason, other than to extort them

 He further proffered that only the Commissioner of Police in Rivers State has one intervened after several appeals, but the situation continued thereafter. On the other hand, the Divisional Police Officer of the station had refused to do anything about the situation, hence their appeal the IGP.