Truck drivers conveying food items and fertilizer to Rivers State said they were stranded at Iriebe, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state due to the curfew in some parts of Rivers State and extortion by police and other security agencies.
The truck drivers said they had been at the checkpoint in Iriebe axis of the Port Harcourt-Aba Express Road for days.
It was gathered that several trucks had been on the same spot for the past five days.
Speaking with our correspondent of Punch, a representative of the truck drivers, Ibrahim Adams, said security personnel were demanding N2,000 before allowing them pass and appealed to them to allow him return to his state.
Adams stated. “I carried fertilizers and got to the checkpoint. This is not our state. We are going back. So, they should allow us to go. They said we should pay them before we pass. But we say we are not paying.
“We are Nigerians. They are asking for N2,000 per truck, why? These trucks were here for one week. We have to go.”
Another truck driver narrated his experience trying to leave the state, saying, “My boss sent me to Aba, but when I reached the checkpoint, they ask what I am carrying, I said let me reverse first, they said no.
“They told me that big trucks like the one I am driving will pay N7,000 or N5,000 before passing. I have spent three days here without having my bath,” he stated
Efforts to reach spokesman of the State Police Command, Nnamdi Omoni, was unsuccessful as he did not pick calls put across to his mobile phone.