WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-08-01 Time: 13:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
By Emeka Umeagbalasi
Lagos – In Criminology, Blue collar crime is regarded as any crime committed by an individual from a lower social class, as opposed to white-collar crime committed by individuals of higher social class. An example of a blue-collar criminal is a police person who demands for a bribe at the police check-point.
On the other hand, it is bribery when one other than a public official corruptly takes the initiative and offers what he knows is not an authorized fee to a public official; and it is extortion when a public official corruptly makes an unlawful demand which is paid by one who does not realize it is not the fee authorized for the services rendered, see latest (2009) edition of the Black’s Law Dictionary.
It is on the basis of the foregoing that the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, Nigeria, decided to take a cursory look at the blue-collar criminality or roadblock extortions in the Southeast Nigeria from January 2009 to June 2010 or in the past 18 months. We had severally observed that between June 1999 and December 2008, the Anambra State Police personnel unlawfully made a whopping sum of N3.3billion from various police check points or roadblocks in the State.
This was as a result of our earlier investigations, using commonsense principles such as observations from, and interactions with travelers and transporters and the eyewitnesses’ accounts. We had in the course of the said investigations, interviewed several victims such as commercial motorcyclists, commercial motorists, private car operators and other eyewitnesses.
Our investigations then were (and are still) restricted to roadblock extortions and did not cover other branches of blue-collar crime being perpetrated by corrupt police persons such as extortions associated with conveyance of goods and other related items, unlawful bail fees, extortions arising from criminal investigations, etc.
We also made a finding of the fact that, if calculated, the foregoing extortions would either be at par with the sum total of extortions associated with roadblocks or double same.
It was our further finding that between June 1999 and December 2003, toll benchmark used by the extortionists was N10.00 per extortee and a total number of 70 roadblocks were estimated to have existed then on Anambra roads.
And each roadblock, manned by a five-person or four-person police squad made the sum of N10,000 per day from commercial and private motorists and motorcyclists, who encountered the affected roadblocks about 1000 times per day, meaning that a total sum of N700,000 was generated by the extortionists per day from the 70 check-points.
Therefore, between June 1999 and December 2003, a total sum of N1,26Billion was believed to have been unlawfully realized from the affected roadblocks. But between January 2004 and December 2008, the toll benchmark was increased to N20.00 per extortee and the private vehicle operators were exempted, with the exception of extortions arising from lawful and unlawful examination of vehicular papers.
The total sum unlawfully realized daily, moved from N700,000 to N1.4m per day, N42m per month and N504million per year. As a result, between January 2004 and December 2008, a period of four years, a total of N2, 016b was believed to have been unlawfully realized from the police check points.
In all, between June 1999 and December 2008, a period of 9 ½ years, a total of N3.3Billion or about $30million, (using the then exchange rate of about N110,00 per US Dollar, might have been unlawfully realized.
Today, there are between 350 and 400 police check points in Anambra State, manning about 14 federal roads and over 700 kilometers of the state roads or Trunk B roads in the State and manned by over 1800 police personnel. There are also increasing number of commercial vehicles and motorcycles on Anambra roads.
Apart from over 200 Markets in the State, the State is highly urbanized. And more urban centers are springing up. Four, out of every five adult persons in the State are engaged in the art of buying and selling of goods and services. As a matter of fact, Anambra State is the most urbanized and most densely populated in the Southeast-Nigeria, followed by Abia State.
The state has over ten urban centers and they are Ekwulobia/ Oko, Umunze, Ihiala,Nnewi, Oba,Ogidi, Nkpor,Obosi, Ogbaru, Onitsha, Nsugbe, Awka, Nise/Agulu zone, etc and self-efforts development index is very high among her adult population. The State is also a trade-prone society, and occupies a land mass of about 4,611 square kilometers. Anambra also informally contributes about fifty percent of non-oil revenues to Delta State, especially to Asaba, the State capital city.
In addition, Anambra State is home to largest number of commercial motorcycles in Nigeria after Lagos State. As at June 2010, for instance, there are 326,652 registered commercial motorcyclists in Lagos State, according to statistics released recently by the Government of Lagos State.
It is estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 commercial motorcycles may be operating in Anambra State as of date, owning to influx of commercial motorcycle operators into the State on the heels of bans placed on them by various States’ Governments in the Southeast and South South zones. Their second safe heaven is Abia State, especially before they were banned in Aba and Umuahia in June 2009. They have now relocated to semi urban and remote areas of the State.
In other words, Anambra and Abia States are predominantly blue-collar societies, where many, if not, most adult populations are engaged in physical activities in formal and informal industries. Businesses are predominantly conducted on cash-and-carry basis.
The cash-carrying ratio in the two societies is very high. This is largely in contrast to what goes on in respect of Imo, Enugu and Ebonyi States, which are regarded as “civil-service States”, where white-collar criminality may be predominant.
Therefore, in order of categorization, Anambra leads as a State worse hit by police-perpetrated blue-collar criminality, followed by Abia State, then Imo State, Enugu State and Ebonyi State. This is also evidenced by the number of police check-points present in the five States.
From our investigations, anchored on commonsense principles and eyewitnesses’ accounts, there are between 350 and 400 police/military check-points in Anambra State; between 300 and 350 in Abia State; about 250 in Imo State; about 200 in Enugu State and about 150 in Ebonyi State totaling over 1,350 police check-points in the zone as at June 2010.
The remote motives behind the sharp increase in the number of these check-points are for the perpetration of blue-collar criminality, while the outer motives are to combat the political class-oiled violent crimes, especially the crimes of kidnapping for ransom and hi-tech armed robbery, banking and bullion van robberies. In the case of Anambra State, part of the outer motives has to do with the February 6, 2010 gubernatorial election.
These over 1,350 police check-points in the Southeast- Nigeria are manned by over 7,000 policepersons on average of five or four policepersons per check-point. This is excludes over 25,000 policepersons believed to have been deployed and cramped in the existing police formations in the zone sine January 2009 and they are not part of those statutorily stationed in various police formations within the zone.
In Imo State alone, according to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo, over 5,000 police personnel mainly from the Mobile Police Division of the Force were recently deployed to the State.
Statistics
Those involved in the roadblock extortions in the Southeast-Nigeria are mainly drawn from the Mobile Police Division of the Nigeria Police Force. Others are members of the Regular Police Division, Special Anti-Robbery Squads, Anti-Terrorism Squads, and the Military Police Personnel. Soldiers rarely extort road users where they are stationed, except at joint roadblocks with members of the Mobile Police Division.
In this case, MOPOL persons do the extortion, while soldiers stay at a distance, watching, but they
partake in the sharing of the “proceeds” at the end of the criminal roadblock exercise.
The toll benchmark is N20.00 for MOPOL and Regular Policepersons; N50.00 to N100 for the Military Police Personnel and the SARS; while the Anti Terrorism Squads, who are not stationed, but on patrol, target wares’ couriers for extortion at random, which ranges from N1,000 to N20,000 per victim. Members of the Federal Highways’ Patrol Teams also engage in this nefarious activity.
Their victims are asked to park off the road, and locate their leaders by the bush side and part with N100.00 to N200 (per victim). Members of the Federal Roads’ Safety Corps, engage in “booby-traps” extortions; whereby out of over twenty “offenses” contained in their “offense sheets”, road users rarely escape from such “booby-traps”.
Some road users, especially commercial motorists have formed the habits of parking miles away from check points, mounted by the FRSC personnel; walk up to the check-points and settle (bribe) them so as to be given clean passage.
In Anambra State, the non-statue-backed Anambra State Roads’ Traffic Agency, ASTA, is nightmarish. Their pattern of extortion ranges from random removal of plate numbers to flattening of tyres/impoundment of vehicles.
Once a road user parks his or her vehicle off the center of the road so as to answer a phone call, he or she will be surrounded by the Agency’s operatives and accuse of “obstruction”, and he or she will be intimidated to part with N5,000.00 to N15,000.00.
Relying on eyewitnesses’ accounts, interactions with some road users and observations by our fact-finding teams, the following findings were made. There were about ten police check points as at June 2010 between Enugu State, 9th Mile and Oturkpa in Benue State, whereas the Oturkpa to Federal Capital Territory, among others routes recorded near-zero police check points.
There were at least twenty police check points as at June 2010 from Enugu to Okigwe in Imo State, using Enugu-Port Harcourt Dual Carriage Way. There were about 60 police check-points from Enugu to Abakaliki in Ebonyi State as at June 2010, using Enugu-Abakaliki Road which is about an hour journey. There were about thirty police check-points as at June 2010 from Onitsha in Anambra State to Enugu State (New Market Park) using Onitsha-Enugu Dual Carriage Way in a journey of about 1 ½ hours.
There were at least twenty police check points as at June 2010 from Onitsha to Owerri in Imo State using Onitsha-Owerri Dual Carriage Way in a journey of less than two hours. There were about twenty police check points as at June 2010 from Onitsha to Benin in Edo State (via Onitsha-Asaba-Benin Dual Carriage Way) in a journey of less than 2 hours, whereas from Agbor to Abuja and from Benin to Lagos, there were not up to ten check points for the two routes that take up to 9hours.
There were at least twenty police check- points as at June 2010 from Okigwe in Imo State to Aba in Abia State in a journey of less than an hour. There were at least thirty police check points as at June 2010 from Aba to Port Harcourt in Rivers State in a journey of about two hours.
Our findings also clearly showed that blue-collar crime thrives in the Southeast, Nigeria more than crime of kidnapping for ransom rooted in organized crimes. While it is estimated that the sum of N3,5b might have been lost to kidnapping for ransom in the Southeast, Nigeria since 2007, on average of N5Million per victim, out of about 700 persons believed to have been kidnapped in the area since 2007, the sum of N9,35b is believed to have been lost to police check, point extortions meaning that evil proceeds realized from the roadblock extortions is three times more than that lost to kidnappers.
We also found out that the crime of police roadblock extortions appeared to be well, patterned. It is perpetrated by the rank and files (lowest ebb of the Nigeria Police Force) and seemingly backed by the Command hierarchy of the Force.
Recommendations
In addition to our earlier recommendations on ways to curb rabid corruption in the Nigeria Police Force as well as ways out of kidnapping and arm robbery menace in the Southeast, Nigeria, it is our further recommendation that situations where police recruitment exercises are commercialized and politicized must be prohibited. It has been revealed that an average police recruit coughs out between N30,000 and N100,000 so as to be formally recruited into the Force.
Also, it is widely believed that three, out of every five police persons are loyal to Nigeria’s gangster politicians, who facilitated their entry into the Force.
We also recommend that all forms of bribery arising from postings and transfers of police personnel especially from other geopolitical zones to the Southeast zone shall be prohibited. We have it on good authority that many of those affected by the IGP’s recent announcement of the transfer of over 3,500 police persons from the Southeast zone are “working”(bribing) their way back to the zone.
Finally, it is our recommendation that the Police Service Commission as presently constituted, should be dissolved and reconstituted so as to be able to curb these excesses and properly civilianize and re-orientate the Force and its personnel.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, is chairman, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, Nigeria.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 30 July 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201007300424.html?viewall=1