Benue govt orders demolition of illegal roadblocks

Benue State Government has ordered that all illegal checkpoints across the state be dismantled with immediate effect.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Security and Internal Affairs, Joseph Har, disclosed this to newsmen in Makurdi on Sunday.

Har decried the situation where members of the Military, Police, NSCDC, Correctional Service, and Immigration will take over federal highways.

The security adviser said independent investigation revealed that those manning the checkpoints were those deployed to protect the Correctional Facility, especially, around lower Benue in Makurdi.

He ordered that such illegal checkpoints be dismantled and warned the perpetrators to desist forthwith.

The exercise was carried out on Saturday, March 9, 2024.

Har who was accompanied by the Principal Special Assistant on Security and Internal Affairs, Hon Godwin Malu, among other officers, explained that there are dangers in having illicit checkpoints across the state.

He listed some of the dangers such illegal checkpoints posed for the state, painting the image of the state in bad light as it tells one that you are entering an unsecured environment especially when you drive all the way from Abuja, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu with skeletal checkpoint and are greeted with a huge proliferation of checkpoints in Benue state.

He also stated that it was discovered that the personnel used to split themselves to have more checkpoints and get more spoils but did not take into cognizance the danger of having one armed personnel and a camp boy operating in an era where criminals are looking for weapons to harvest.

He said, “They offer T shirts and other regalia to the camp boys to wear and open the barrier for them thereby exposing these boys to using same regalia elsewhere to pose as Law Enforcement Agents.“