Police Crackdown at Upper Iweka Bridge: Removing Criminals and Setting Up Checkpoints to Protect Motorists and Commuters

By Nwabueze Okonkwo

In Onitsha, the Upper Iweka flyover bridge on the busy Onitsha‑Awka express road was once a notorious spot in the commercial capital of Anambra State. It was feared for the criminal activities that took place there, including violent armed robbery.

Over the past years, the entire circumference of the bridge was essentially a den of robbers, kidnappers, car and bag snatchers, and other criminal elements. It also illegally served as a place where beggars and people with disabilities gathered to beg for their daily bread.

Many residents and visitors fell victim to these crimes, some losing their lives, others being wounded, and many losing money and valuables.

The security situation under the bridge was a serious concern for successive governments in Anambra State. Each administration made significant efforts to tackle the menace and sanitize the area, and they succeeded. The place is today relatively secure.

However, motorists and commuters in the city are now complaining bitterly about illegal activities by security operatives, particularly the Police, around the bridge. They accuse the Police of sacking criminals and mounting extortion checkpoints to dispossess them of their hard‑earned money.

After displacing the criminals under and on top of the bridge, the policemen deployed from various formations such as Okpoko, Onitsha Area Command, Anti‑Kidnapping/Rapid Response Squad (AKS/RRS), Anti‑Crime Patrol, Highway Patrol, and IGP/CP Monitoring Unit, according to the complaints, converted the checkpoints established to checkmate criminals into extortion points.

Investigations revealed that the Police hierarchy in the state intended to establish the checkpoints, but some officers turned the areas into extortion points, forcing victims, particularly private car owners, to pay between N200,000 and N500,000, as the case may be.

Their modus operandi, it was learned, is to stop a commercial vehicle or any motorist, find a fault with the vehicle particulars, and collect between N200 and above. In the case of private car owners, they demand vehicle particulars and, even if complete, they request obscure documents such as a police extract or a tinted glass permit. If the owner cannot provide them, the officers label the vehicle as ‘stolen’ and capitalize on the owner’s inability to comply.

These illegalities were rampant between January and April this year, when many private car owners complained about extortion by the policemen using various tactics. Some were extorted right within the checkpoints after being accused of possessing a stolen vehicle, and those who could not produce cash were taken to nearby POS operators where the agreed amount was withdrawn instantly or transferred to a certain account allegedly belonging to the officers.

One case came to light in March when policemen accosted a private car owner, accused him of possessing a stolen vehicle, and extorted N200,000 from him on the spot. When the man returned home and informed his wife, she went berserk and contacted her brother, a serving senior police officer in Abuja.

After telling her brother, he instructed her to go with her husband to the nearby Police Divisional Headquarters at Okpoko to verify whether the erring officers were from the Division.

When she arrived at the Okpoko Divisional Headquarters and informed the Divisional Police Officer in charge (DPO), the DPO quickly deployed officers to the spot with her and her husband to identify the officers involved in the extortion.

Upon identifying the erring officers, who were not from Okpoko Division but from Highway Patrol, the DPO’s officers demanded the extortionists refund the money immediately or bring them to the station to see the DPO.

Out of frustration, the officers refunded the money to the couple, but when the video of the extortion went viral and drew the attention of Police authorities in the state and Zone 13 Headquarters at Ukpo, the DPO was directed to arrest the erring officers and bring them to the State Police Headquarters in Awka for proper interrogation.

The DPO arrested the officers and took them to Awka, where they were allegedly detained and subjected to an Orderly Room Trial. Afterward, they were reportedly ferried to Force Headquarters in Abuja for proper disciplinary actions, as directed by authorities at the Force Headquarters.

While the dust from that incident was about to settle, a similar incident occurred when another team of policemen from Onitsha Area Command allegedly extorted another car owner of a sum of N250,000 after accusing him of possessing a stolen Toyota Highlander.

According to an eyewitness, the policemen at the same checkpoint under the Upper Iweka flyover bridge on March 7 demanded the vehicle particulars from the owner. When he produced the particulars, including the purchase receipt, insurance and other vital documents, they asked for his police extract. When he could not produce it, one of the policemen entered the vehicle and ordered him to drive straight to the Area Command Headquarters in Onitsha.

At the headquarters, they collected the vehicle key and his phone, threatened to detain him as someone caught in possession of a stolen vehicle if he failed to give them N500,000, and, after the owner offered N10,000, N20,000, N50,000, N100,000, and N200,000, they mocked him until he paid N250,000. They then took him to a nearby POS operator and withdrew the sum from his account before allowing him to leave with his ‘stolen’ vehicle.

A few weeks later, he contacted his lawyer, who wrote a strongly worded petition to the Area Commander, the CP, AIG in charge of Zone 13, and the IGP. Upon receiving the petition, the newly posted Area Commander immediately directed the policemen to refund the amount. They returned the money to the man’s account at the same nearby POS.

In all, while inhabitants and the Onitsha business community praise the Police for removing criminals from the spots and reducing the crime rate in the commercial city and the state in general, they also call on the Police hierarchy to maintain zero tolerance against extortion.

The State Commissioner of Police, Ikioye Orutugu, has warned his men at various forums against extorting innocent civilians and to focus on providing the utmost security in the state.

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