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By: Emmanuel Kanayo
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\u200eMotorists and pedestrians plying St John\/Car Wash Road along Ogbogoro in Rumuolumeni, Obio\/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State have alleged that a local vigilante group is extorting money from road users in broad daylight.
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\u200eThe road, a busy link route in Obio\/Akpor LGA, has reportedly become a collection point where members of the group stop vehicles and demand payment.
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\u200eSeveral commuters who spoke on condition of anonymity said the practice has persisted for days. They allege the vigilantes operate close to Elioparanwo Police Station, with officers at the station allegedly observing without intervening.
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\u200e\u201cThey stand at St John\/Car Wash Road, Ogbogoro axis every day collecting money from cars, buses, and even keke. The police station is just there but nobody stops them,\u201d one driver alleged.
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\u200eIllegal tolls and \u201cstreet levies\u201d by non-state actors violate Rivers State laws and the Nigerian Constitution. The Rivers State Police Command has repeatedly warned against such practices and urged residents to report cases to the Police Complaint Response Unit or the nearest divisional headquarters.
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\u200eEfforts to reach Elioparanwo Police Station and the Obio\/Akpor LGA vigilante leadership for comments were unsuccessful as of press time.
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\u200eResidents are now calling on the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command, and Obio\/Akpor LGA authorities to investigate the allegations and restore free movement on St John\/Car Wash Road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Emmanuel Kanayo \u200eMotorists and pedestrians plying St John\/Car Wash Road along Ogbogoro in Rumuolumeni, Obio\/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State have alleged that a local vigilante group is extorting money from road users in broad daylight. \u200eThe road, a busy link route in Obio\/Akpor LGA, has reportedly become a collection point where members<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}