A Civil Society Organization, Youth and Students Advocates for Development Initiative (YSAD) has advised industrial chauffeurs and other road users to approach the court to implement their rights against extortion by the cops and other security personnel in the country, particularly in the South East region.

The group said no police officer, whether the Police, Army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) have organization transforming their uniforms, lorries, weapons and other work tools into short articles of oppression.

Ceo of YSAD, Obinna Nwagbara, gave the charge in a communique provided at the end of a one-day sensitization workshop on human rights and traffic guidelines arranged for the National Union of Roads Transport Workers and other stakeholders.

YSAD alleged that many security workers running in the South East States have derailed from their obligations and constituted themselves as annoyances to the general public through their prohibited activities and behaviours.

The group likewise urged the NURTW members and other road users to always comply with traffic guidelines, update their vehicles certificates, stay obedient people and report any incidence of extortion to appropriate authorities.

He worried that efforts to curb the prohibited activities of the security workers, particularly on the roadways stayed a collective duty of well-meaning and worried citizens, adding that YSAD was committed to playing important roles to end the menace.

“YSAD could not concern terms with the catastrophe of accepting that it is fine for law enforcement officers, paid from the public coffers with individuals’s tax, to turn around and become extortionists to the extremely exact same individuals who utilized them in the perfect sense of it.

“We insist that it is undesirable for those paid to maintain order, guarantee the security of road users, prevent criminality and ensure the smooth flow of traffic to reverse and demand allurements from hardworking Nigerians whether they are business motorists or just private individuals driving their lorries.”

Likewise in their remarks, Uche Ihediwa (SAN), Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Abia State, and the keynote speaker at the workshop, Dr Ahamefula Amaramiro similarly prompted citizens to check out existing laws to enforce their rights when infringed upon.

They charged residents to quit the mindset of abandoning the enforcement of their rights on divinity, worrying that they have the liberty to enforce rights through the court to ensure that the transgressors are remedied and redirected effectively.

Ihediwa said, “there are excellent laws enough to protect our human rights in this country. The issue is that we sit in our homes, stating let’s leave it to God when our rights are infringed and the aberration continues. We should impose our rights.”

“It was the failure of individuals whose rights have actually been infringed upon to approach the court that makes it hard for the offending officers to be brought to book,” Amaramiro added.