ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – A report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has revealed that various security agencies allegedly extorted an estimated N2.8 trillion at gunpoint from South-Eastern Nigeria residents between July 2020 and July 2023.
The report titled “Criminal Monies Have Taken over Security and Governance Duties in Eastern Nigeria”, was signed by Intersociety’s principal officers – Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chinwe Umeche, Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Ndidiamaka C. Bernard, Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, Ositadinma Agu, and Samuel Kamanyaoku.
The report highlights the breakdown of extortions, including police and military roadblocks amounting to N670 billion, police custodial extortions totalling N200 billion, and “crime proceeds” converted by police accounting for N60 billion.
Other extortions noted in the report are by militant government agencies, estimated at N700 billion, and N150 billion attributed to military and police house burnings/lootings across the region.
Additionally, the report points out that the exodus of 45 per cent of businesses from the southeast to the southwest, mainly Lagos, was targeted to impact the region’s economy, along with government-inflicted insecurity.
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Intersociety explains that the N2.8 trillion proceeds from criminal activities involved police and military roadblocks, governors’ squandered security votes, extortions by militant government agencies, police security to VIPs/institutions, military/police house burnings/lootings, ransoms/robberies by armed non-state criminal entities and other crime proceeds from armed non-state criminal entities.
The report raises questions about the actions of deployed security forces at Eastern roadblocks and other extortionist government agencies, comparing their alleged criminality to the non-state criminal entities they are supposed to contain.
Intersociety highlights that the stolen amount was not traced to legitimate government budgetary processes in the eleven Eastern Nigerian States and governors’ monthly “security votes” are suspected of being used for whimsical and capricious spending, potentially siphoning public funds without proper accountability procedures.
The report concludes that Governors have allegedly hidden under the pretext of “insecurity” to over-bloat and siphon public funds, where at least N1 billion out of every N5 billion received monthly as “State’s share of federal allocations” is reportedly set aside as “monthly security votes.”