- The extortions included police and military roadblocks (N670 billion), police custodial extortions (N200 billion), and “crime proceeds” converted by police (N60 billion)
- Squandered governors’ security votes amounted to N400 billion, and extortions by militant government agencies were put at N700 billion
According to a report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), an estimated N2.8 trillion was extorted at gunpoint from residents of South-Eastern Nigeria by various security agencies between July 2020 and July 2023.
The report reveals that police and military roadblocks accounted for N670 billion, police custodial extortions for N200 billion, and “crime proceeds” converted by police for N60 billion.
Additionally, squandered governors’ security votes amounted to N400 billion, while extortions by militant government agencies were put at N700 billion.
Moreover, military and police house burnings/lootings across the zone accounted for N150 billion.
The report highlights that these extortions resulted in a 45 percent exodus of businesses from the southeast to the southwest, particularly Lagos, which severely impacted the southeast economy due to the government-inflicted insecurity in the region.
“The amount had risen from ‘blue-collar’ corruption and other corrupt practices perpetrated by armed state actors and armed non-state actors cutting across the eleven Eastern Nigerian States of Edo, Delta, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and Rivers a period covering July 2020 to July 2023.
“The whopping N2.8trillion proceeds from state actor and non-state actor criminal activities had come from police and military roadblocks N670b, Governors’ squandered security votes’ N400billion, extortions by militant Government agencies N700b, police security to VIPs/institutions N30b, military/police house burnings/lootings N150b, ransoms/robberies by armed nonstate criminal entities N400b and other crime proceeds from armed nonstate criminal entities N200B. Added to the estimated N660 billion police/military roadblock extortions is estimated N200 billion arising from ‘police custodial extortions (.i.e. ‘bail fees’ and ‘cash mobilization’ for arrests, investigations, and court arraignments).
“Estimated sum of N60billion was also linked to gunpoint seizure and conversion of “crime proceeds” by various police crack squads across the eleven Eastern States (.i.e. gunpoint money transfers and cash seizure and conversion of the seized automobiles, motorcycles, and other expensive personal belongings) especially those seized from the slain and the arrested citizens undergoing criminal investigations. The totality of the above is to say that criminal monies have taken over security and governance duties in Eastern Nigeria,” the report indicated.
Intersociety in the seven-page research report, explained that it was a follow-up from the main Report of Tuesday, July 18, 2023, which identified six major triggers of insecurity and other unsafe conditions threatening Nigeria with genocide or complex humanitarian catastrophes in the past eight years or since June 2015.
The report, however, queried whether or not the deployed security forces at Eastern roadblocks and other extortionist Government agencies are more criminal and atrocious than non-state criminal entities and criminalities the former are constitutionally mandated to uproot and contain.
According to the report, governors have been found to have hidden under “insecurity” or creation of same to whimsically and capriciously over-bloat and siphon public funds. This is to the extent that “out of every N5billion received monthly as ‘State’s share of federal allocations’, at least N1billion is set aside and siphoned as “monthly security votes”.
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