37 FRSC officials arrested for extortion, says ICPC

By Ese Awhotu

Thirty seven officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC have been arrested for alleged extortion of motorists on the nation’s highways.
The Independent Corruption Practices Commission, ICPC disclosed this in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Rasheedat Okoduwa, yesterday,
The statement said the suspected official were arrested by a joint inter-agency team led by the anti-corruption agency, ICPC.
It said the team comprised officials of ICPC, FRSC and the State Security Service (SSS).
The commission also said the team arrested five persons said to be agents of the corps officials in a sting operation carried out simultaneously in the six geo-political zones.
The ICPC said the team struck on Friday following the receipt of a complaint from the management of the Corps of massive extortion of money from motorists on the highways by its patrol teams.
The FRSC management had, in the complaint to the Commission, observed 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 the Kaduna states, respectively.
”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 the three civilian accomplices have been granted administrative bail and will be prosecuted by the
commission at the conclusion of investigations.