37 FRSC officers arrested for extorting cash from motorists on Nigerian highways

A Joint Inter-Agency Team led by the independent Corrupt Practices and other connected Offences Commission (ICPC) has arrested 37 officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) for allegedly extorting cash from motorists on Nigerian highways.

The Team, comprising officials of ICPC, FRSC and the the} Department of State Security (DSS) also arrested 5 persons said to be agents of the corps officials in a very sting operation carried out at the same time in the six geo-political zones.

The Team smitten on Friday 16th August, 2019, following the receipt of a criticism from the management of the Corps of huge extortion of cash from motorists on the highways by its patrol teams.

in a very statement by the spokesperson of the commission, Rasheedat Okoduwa, the FRSC management had, in the complaint to the Commission, ascertained that incidents of extortion were rife in the six states of Kaduna, Bauchi, Abia, Rivers, Kogi and Ogun.

Based on this, the ICPC-led Team went into action and identified the notorious spots in each of the aforementioned states to include Aba in Abia State; Ahoada, Ajaokuta, Itori, Torro and Gwantu in Rivers, Kogi, Ogun, Bauchi and Kaduna States respectively.  

According to Mrs Okoduwa, 13 FRSC officials and two civilians were arrested in Aba in the South-east while 24 other FRSC officials and three civilians were arrested from various spots on roads spread across the other geo-political zones.  

Findings from the Joint Inter-Agency Team indicated that various sums of money were found on the arrested Corps officials during the sting operations before they were taken into ICPC custody. However, all the officials arrested, and three civilian accomplices have been granted administrative bail, and will be prosecuted by the Commission at the conclusion of investigations.