Soldiers Designs New Method of Collecting Bribe

Jide Afolabi

Soldiers at the military check point at the border between Ekiti and Kogi states have designed a new method of collecting bribe from motorists.

In one of such instance witnessed by CityMirrorNews correspondent today, Thursday showed that soldiers at the military check point would summarily talk to the driver and ask him to give the money to a young guy who pretends to be drinks hawker standing very close to the soldier that earlier attended to the vehicle.

Chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai

The soldiers were smart to the extent that they have removed their name tags so that their identities would not be revealed. The check point is a few metres away from Iyamoye in Kogi state.

Further investigation by CityMirrorNews revealed that despite the big billboards at checkpoints in Nigeria informing motorists and other road users not to give bribe to military personnel, soldiers have severally forced road users to give them money.

They have been collecting bribe either directly, especially at night or through proxy like the checkpoint in reference here. A commercial driver who plies the road daily but pleaded anonymity told CityMirrorNews that there’s no longer any difference between the police and the soldiers because they all extort them on the road.

He said, “You know people fears soldiers. This checkpoint, that’s what they do. Before, they used to stop us, delay us and still collect money from us but now, they are just directing us to that boy (pointing at the hawker) and give him money”.

He stated further that, “nowadays, soldiers are more corrupt than even the police because police used to collect 50-100 naira from us but the soldiers would not take anything less than 100-200 naira”. The motorist concluded by appealing to government to help them stop the corruption act. He said “We want Government to save us from these soldiers”.

Some of the passengers who addressed CityMirrorNews corroborated the driver’s claims noting that such act is very common on our roads. One of them said, “It’s very unfortunate that soldiers who were very disciplined before have turned to something else. They are now shamelessly collecting bribes at will at every slightest opportunity especially at checkpoints”.

Another passenger, a lady youth Corp member serving in Kogi state said “That’s what they do. They are used to it. They are a disgrace to the military. I challenge the Defence Headquarters to investigate this matter. We are awaiting their response” she exclaimed.

Another motorist said, “This nonsense has to stop. This is what is contributing to insecurity in the country. They are not interested in providing security but in the money they are collecting from us. This is why the security situation has not improved despite increase in mobilisation of soldiers”.