On my way back to my residence after the day’s stress, I hoped that the driver should just drive without encountering any delay. I wanted to get to my location and meet other pressing needs before retiring to bed. The hope was cut short when we got to the second police checkpoint on the way.
The officers were nothing close to what a sane country’s law and order maintaining force should look like. The one that stopped the vehicle I boarded, kept his gun aside and was carrying a big stick. He was looking both tattered and bitter. Naija citizens are aware of what typical dirty ” agboro” (Street Urchin) looks like. He was already threatening to break the screen of the vehicle I boarded, due to his false doubt that our driver had no intention of subscribing to his demand for bribe. He allowed us move the moment he felt the bribe squeezed into his hand.
Not far from the checkpoint, we encountered a long traffic jam. Vehicles were slowly moving, and we spent so much time in the long queue. We could not decipher what caused the traffic jam. I was wondering whether their was an accident or whether road maintenance agency block some parts of the road, in the course of fixing a damage. I was worried, considering that I was in a hurry to meet other needs.
When we finally got close to what caused the delay, after wasting so much time, I was shocked to see that it’s another police checkpoint. I hoped to see critical security exercise they were conducting that warranted such delay, but could not see any. All I saw was angry men with guns, filling their pockets with monies forcefully extorted from motorists. They moved their guns in very aggressive manner and care for nothing else, save the quantum of cash that will enter their hands. Our driver, didn’t waste time to greet and fix the bribe in the hand of the waiting officer, who’s greed is insatiable like the dept of a bottomless pit.
Let it be known to the world and all lovers of good conscience, that president Mohamadu Buhari and his government, gave some men police uniforms and arm them with guns, to do nothing else but to harass citizens and extort innocent commuters, after frightening them with guns. I say this because, if people are in a position to stop wrong, but deliberately refuse to do that, it means that they are fully part of the compromise that is fueling the wrong. The government and their team observe this evil and crime that is being committed against the citizens, but do like they are not seeing it. I hope that my children and the next generation will not witness police or other security agencies like the ones we currently have. This is a disgrace to our nation.
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