Some officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Cross River State allegedly extorted N100,000 from a driver for not wearing a seatbelt, a Nigerian journalist, Agba Jalingo, alleged.
Mr Jalingo, the publisher of Cross River Watch, made the allegation in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
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“This Road Safety team also arrested a vehicle yesterday in Calabar and extorted N100k from the driver for not wearing a seat belt.
.“The money was extorted through the private account of one Zeal Nkere Richard before the vehicle was released. That’s the vehicle they used,” he wrote, with a picture of the Road Safety patrol vehicle and an Opay payment receipt as evidence.
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The receipt showed that the payment was executed on Tuesday at 10:53 a.m.
We’ve commenced investigation – Sector Commander
When contacted, the FRSC Sector Commander in Cross River State, J. W. Tobby, told PREMIUM TIMES that he had spoken with Mr Jalingo and encouraged the journalist to ask the driver to write a petition to the command.
“We have zero tolerance for things like this. They (operatives) are being investigated. We have extant rules. At the end of the day, if they are found guilty, whatever the punishment is, they would face it,” Mr Toby said.
“For now, let’s keep our fingers crossed and wait for a petition from the person (driver). If the investigation is proven to be true, there are laws on the ground to hold them,” he added.
Asked if he is waiting for a formal petition from the driver before commencing the investigation, the sector commander said the command had already begun the investigation, but that the driver should also write a petition to them.
“What we saw there is the payment, but we don’t know what the payment is for,” Mr Toby said. “The staff is off-duty, but we’ve called him to the office to furnish us with his side of the story.
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Not the first time
The incident is one of the many cases where road safety officials have been accused of extorting money from drivers in the country.
Two years ago, this newspaper reported that the FRSC was probing its operatives allegedly caught extorting money from commuters in Ogun State.
PREMIUM TIMES in 2021 reported how 15 FRSC officials were arrested through a joint security operation led by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission for allegedly extorting money from motorists on highways across the country.
The arrests were made simultaneously in Adamawa, Gombe, Ondo, and Osun states, with the extorted money on the officials.
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