Rivers task force fires three officials over extortion
Rivers State Task Force on Illegal Street Trading and Motor Parks said three of its officials allegedly involved in extortion have been dismissed.
This was as the task force said street trading has resurfaced in parts of Port Harcourt, the state capital, due to the activities of community youths, which it described as a challenge.
Chairman of the task force, Mr Felix Nwadibe, disclosed this in Port Harcourt while speaking to newsmen.
He was reacting to allegations of extortion leveled against task force officials and the sudden reappearance of street traders in the metropolis.
Nwadibe, however, said there were some group of people who go about extorting unsuspecting traders in the name of the task force, thereby giving his men a bad name, pointing out that his task force officials were doing their best to curb street trading.
He said, “My men have been fighting street trading. But every time we go to a place, definitely some community boys will come and say this is their area, it is their ‘chopping.’
“So this has been giving us a challenge. And the only time we normally succeed is if we go in a group, that is, the whole task force will move in convoy to a place. If we are in a convoy and we go to Mile 3, nobody will be at Rumuokoro.’’
So Rumuokoro will be doing whatever thing they like.
“If I’m going with the whole team to Rumuokoro, Mile 3 will be porous. So my appeal is to let them behave themselves and assist me to prevent me from moving with the task force wherever they go.”
He further asked members of the public not to give money to any task force official and to report any request or demand for payment from his men.
He enthused, “This money issue, if you go around the streets you will see boys with keke bus who put on apron of any colour to say they are task force and they are collecting money. These are the people that extort money from members of the public and we advise against that.
“In all the moment they say task force, it is my men they will mention. But there was information that came to me last week that some of my men went to PoS, and collected money from street traders or so.
“I investigated it and found it to be true. I dismissed three of them instantly without any consultation.”
