Over 37 officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has been arrested by the joint inter-agency team led by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for allegedly extorting money from motorists on highways.
Rasheedat Okoduwa, ICPC spokesperson,had confirmed the arrest, saying, “team comprising officials of ICPC, FRSC and the Department of State Security (DSS) also arrested five persons said to be agents of the corps officials, in a sting operation carried out simultaneously in the six geo-political zones.”
Sequence of the arrest showed that 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.
Stressing that findings from the 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.
“the team struck on Friday 16th August, 2019, 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,’ she said.
“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, Toro and Gwantu in Rivers, Kogi, Ogun, Bauchi and Kaduna States respectively.”
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.