A group known as Cultural Credibility Development Initiative, CCDI, Monday called on the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali, Baba, to reduce what it described as ‘strangulation checkpoints in Igboland’, by 75 percent.
Disclosing this in a letter titled, “Re-Strangulation of Igboland with checkpoints”, dated 16th December, 2021, the group through Chief A.G. Uwazurike, President and Pastor Steve Nwabuko, Secretary, condemned the number of checkpoints in the region, noting that the suffering of travellers are unbearable.
Read the letter below:
“We are writing to bring to your attention the suffocation caused by humongous number of checkpoints in Igboland.
“Sir, for the avoidance of doubts, a traveller from Lagos to Igboland sees checkpoints every one kilometre up to the uttering road of Benin City. The traveller from Abuja sees checkpoints every two kilo metres until he reaches Delta North fringes.
“The two sets of travellers then are subjected to the horror of a checkpoint every half a kilometre. The distance between checkpoints is reduced to 200 metres once a traveller crosses the Niger Bridge. This Niger Bridge obstruction with checkpoints causes five kilometre back log of cars in a traffic snarl.
“Sir, we are presenting the actual situation of things in Igboland. Today it takes about 5 hours to travel from Lagos to outskirts of Asaba, Delta. But it takes about six hours to travel the distance from the outskirts of Asaba, to the Niger Bridge. The suffering is unbearable.
“We do by this letter seek your intervention to have mercy on travellers by reducing the strangulating number of checkpoints by 75%.”