Oganihu has called on security agencies and governments in the Southeast to end alleged extortion at checkpoints, after a Sunday statement that followed its August 29 meeting. The group said security operations cannot be used to turn highways into revenue-collection corridors or to keep people in prolonged detention without clear legal action.
The appeal lands where motorists and other road users have long complained that routine travel can become a stop-and-pay ordeal. Emeka Umeagbalasi briefed the group on research into checkpoints and alleged extortion by security personnel in Southeast Nigeria, and Oganihu said the response should begin with an audit of every checkpoint across the five states, not with more rhetoric.
That demand is sharper because the group did not dismiss the security pressures facing the region. It acknowledged kidnapping and armed attacks, but said those threats do not justify extortion, harassment, degrading treatment or the abuse of citizens who are simply moving through a checkpoint. The constitutional rights to dignity and freedom of movement, it said, do not disappear on the road.
Oganihu’s position goes further than a call for restraint. It wants security personnel who are found demanding or receiving money from motorists to face disciplinary and criminal proceedings where evidence supports wrongdoing. It also said checkpoints that are clearly needed should operate professionally and transparently, while those serving no identifiable security purpose or acting mainly as points of extortion should be dismantled.
The group’s detention concerns were just as pointed. It raised reports of people held after arrest in connection with separatist agitation or security operations, including alleged detention at Wawa Barracks in Niger State. Oganihu wants a transparent account of who is being held at that facility and other military or security sites, along with the dates and places of arrest, legal status and any pending charges.
That is where the friction in the statement sharpens. Oganihu said anyone suspected of a crime should be prosecuted before a competent court, while those held without enough evidence should be released. In the same breath, it rejected indefinite or secret detention as a substitute for criminal prosecution, making clear that security concerns do not excuse holding people out of public sight without due process.
The group also turned to the Anambra State Government, asking for an account of what it has done with the recommendations of the Truth, Justice and Peace Commission established by Governor Chukwuma Soludo. Those recommendations included mechanisms for documenting missing and disappeared persons and for professionalising and coordinating vigilante services. More than two years later, Oganihu said, the people of Anambra State and the wider Southeast deserve a public account of what has been implemented, what remains outstanding and when the rest will be done.
For now, the unanswered question is not whether Oganihu has set out a position. It has. The real test is whether security agencies and the Anambra State Government will answer it with audited checkpoints, named detainees, and public action, or leave motorists and families to keep navigating the same system in the dark.
