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From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
As part of measures to address insecurity and bring sanity, the Benue State government has commenced the dismantling of illegal checkpoints across the state.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Security and Internal Affairs, Chief Joseph Har, made the disclosure to newsmen in Makurdi, yesterday.
Har queried why a checkpoint, composed of members of the Military, Police, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Correction Service and Immigration, would be mounted on the federal roads and they are not members of Operation ZENDA, the state joint task force.
He said inquiries revealed that those manning the checkpoints were those deployed to protect the correction facility. He ordered that such illegal checkpoints be dismantled, warning perpetrators to desist, forthwith. The exercise was carried out last Saturday.
Chief Har, who was accompanied by the Principal Special Assistant on Security and Internal Affairs, Hon Godwin Malu, among other officers, explained that there were dangers in having illicit checkpoints across the state.
He said some of the dangers include painting the image of the state in bad light as it tells one that you are entering an insecure environment, especially when you drive all the way from Abuja, Cross River, Ebonyi and Enugu States with skeletal checkpoint and are greeted with a huge proliferation of checkpoints in Benue State.
He also stated that it was discovered that the personnel divide themselves to have more checkpoints and get more spoils, but do not take cognisance of the danger of having one armed personnel and a camp boy operating in an era where criminals are looking for weapons to harvest.
“They offer T-shirts and other regalia to the camp boys to wear and open the barrier for them, thereby, exposing these boys to using the same regalia elsewhere to pose as law enforcement agents.”
Chief Har advised other LEAs operating illicit checkpoints to dismantle them immediately.
