ON FEBRUARY 2, 2021 3:44 PM IN NEWS
By Emma Una – Calabar

Commercial drivers under the aegis of Inter-City drivers Union on Tuesday morning barricaded the busy Calabar Ikom highway to register their protest over alleged extortion by police and Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, in Cross River State.
The drivers carried out the protest in Ugep following a resolution in their emergency meeting which deliberated on the way forward on the hike in charges by FRSC and police personnel on their members.
The drivers led by their Chairman, Egbe Zico, popularly known as Government House, decried the persistent daily increase in the compulsory collections at checkpoints mounted by the police and men of the FRSC men.
Zico revealed that “drivers’ ordeal is pathetic owing to the undue collections by members of FRSC and other uniform organisations along the three hundred kilometres road highway”.
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He said the drivers are wearied at the demand Police of two hundred naira per trip while those of the FRSC have pegged their rate at five hundred naira per vehicle.
Vanguard also gathered that the union has drawn a minimum requirement for all drivers in the union to process all documents regarding their individual vehicles to block all loopholes for extortion.
“We have directed all our members to update their documents and refuse to yield to further extortion by men who have turned their mandate to secure the highway to extortion points”.
Efforts to speak with Mr Ofordu, the Cross River State FRSC Sector Commander failed as he did answer calls on his GSM phone.