The Dangers of Traveling by road: An Episode.

How Safe Are Travelers on The Highway?

On Saturday, 27^th of May, 2023, a couple of students from the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo state were returning from the National Association of Building Students and Annual meeting which was held in Akwa-Ibom state when their bus got pulled over by some armed men dressed in military uniform along Imo-Abia state road. When they parked, they noticed that three other buses had been pulled over as well.

They had been pulled over for a search exercise, which is a norm when plying Nigerian roads.

The kind of military uniform the armed men were putting on.

Obediently, they alighted from the bus like the passengers in other buses did to enable these uniformed armed men carry out their search. They started by searching through their bags. In doing so, they took the money they found in the bag of one of the students, including the cash prize he had won from the Quiz competition held at the Annual meeting.

Unsatisfied with that, they went on to demand for their phones.

Those whose phones were on were asked to unlock the phones for a search. What exactly these men hoped to find, no one knows, and without stating what they found incriminating in the phone, they started to slap and beat up one of the students…

This process they carried out one after another with each student.

Then they went further by bringing out a phone in an attempt to get a video record of him, asking him to comply. This conversation ensued between them;

Armed Men: What do you do for a living?

Boy: I am a student.

The beating started again. That wasn’t the response they obviously wanted even after seeing his school Identity card.

Boy: What do you want me to say?

Armed Men: Say that you are into fraud.

Every normal human being would be shocked at being asked to say what they are not, especially if it is something incriminating, but to avoid another round of slaps and beatings, he was forced to say into the camera that he is into fraud. They asked him to unlock his phone again when they discovered the phone had locked itself. Apparently when they had gone through his phone earlier, they saw his account balance which is #47,000, so they ordered him to transfer the sum of #40,000 to them.

This young boy pleaded with them, telling them that should he transfer the amount they are asking for, he would be left stranded, especially as they have already ripped him off the cash they found in his bag, but they insisted on that particular amount. In fact, they were being gracious to him by not demanding for all the money they saw in his bank account. Left with no choice, he tried using his bank app to send for the transfer, but that was when his village people decided to use his bank app to play ten-ten.

Nevertheless, the men were more determined than whatever force was working against his bank app to collect the money. They instructed him to use a POS. To make the process faster for him, they provided a motorcycle (bike) that would take him to a POS attendant to withdraw the money for them.

This act of broad daylight robbery was not only carried out on him, but also on every other passenger whose phones they found on and functioning. As for the other student, they found #13,000 in his bank account and asked him to transfer #10,000 to them which he did, leaving him with the sum of #3,000. From the receipt of the transfer made to them, the name of the receiver is Chidera Hermes Ohazuruike, a customer at Acess Bank.

Payment receipt of the transfer made by one of the students they extorted money from.

Before they were released to continue on their journey, they saw a man in the gutter with his legs up. These brutal men in military uniform were mercilessly stepping on his head, causing their poor victim to bleed from his head.

Who knows what the man’s offence might be to deserve such cruel treatment from people who are supposed to protect Nigerians.

After travelling for about thirty minutes, they came across another batch of the same armed military men in front of a school field. Recall that the said date happens to be children’s day celebration as well, and while pupils carried out activities to mark their day, they were busy flagging down buses to carry out illegal search exercise on innocent travelers.

It is bad enough that Nigerians using the road for travelling face insecurity from bandits and herdsmen, but having to deal with such from people trained to keep the country and her Citizens safe calls out for immediate action, because they did not stop with those students, and they will not stop until something is done about it.

The military men stationed at Imo-Abia state route from Akwa-Ibom to Edo state needs to be investigated and brought to book before they gruesomely take the life of an innocent Nigerian in a desperate bid to get money. If they can forcefully take money from travelers, have them beaten up, force them into admitting to be who they are not just to justify their callousness, what then is the human life to them?

Not only have they beaten and taken money from them, they have plunged the young boys into a state of emotional trauma and damages, because in the process of slapping and beating, they damaged the phone screen of one of the students.

Those wild animals in uniforms need to be checked ASAP.