An Ikare Akoko group, has petitioned the Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Bolaji Salami, that some persons from Akungba Akoko, are providing support for those allowing heavy-duty vehicles through the barricade erected to prevent accidents at the gate of Adekunle Ajasin University.
The group through its Lawyer, A. S. Subair accused some notable Chiefs in Akungba Akoko of providing backup to those removing the barricade for heavy duty vehicle to pass, after collecting money.
Scores of residents including students have been killed in Akungba Akoko whenever a heavy duty vehicle failed on the hilly part of the road.
Due to this numerous deaths, the barricade was erected to frustrate and divert heavy duty vehicles from the road, as an immediate solution to the challenge.
A copy of the petition made available to newsmen in Akure, the State capital read:
“We are a Firm of Legal Practitioners acting as Solicitors to Ikare Renaissance Union, an umbrella organization for young professionals, artisans and business practitioners, (Our Client) on whose mandate and instruction we write you.
“Our Client informed us that due to the incessant and heart wrecking accidents along the Ikare/Akungba corridor, wherein a lot of students of Adekunle Ajasin University lost their lives, measures such as the final relocation of the Adekunle Ajasin University Gate from that corridor to its permanent site was done to curb further incident. While this effort has substantially reduced the incidence of accidents along the route, we learnt that some outlaws are now leveraging on these tragic incidents as an opportunity to extort innocent citizens plying the Ikare/Akungba corridor.
“It is our brief that some persons led by the duo of Jide Ogboye and Ayetan Folusho, hiding under the auspices Akungba Traditional Council under the leadership of Alale of Akungba, are now exploiting this tragedy by installing barricades at the entrance of the Ikare portion of the Federal Highway, on the façade of permanently stopping trucks from plying the route. They have now converted the place to a Toll Gate, where they now extort sums of between N5000 and N 10000 from trucks before granting them passage.
“Ordinarily, an unsuspecting member of the public would assume that the purpose of this barricade is genuine, but what we have today is a “Zamfara effect” where citizens are made to pay tax to “outlaws” in order to be able to carry out their legitimate duties.
“Our Client has reasons to believe that these criminal elements that continuously lay siege to the Federal Highway are agents of the Alale of Akungba, Oba Sunday Ajimo and the Akungba Divisional Police Officer, whose men have been spotted severally at the said barricade jointly extorting tolls alongside the criminal elements.
“The nefarious activities of these people already have inflicted grave consequences on economic activities in Ikare Akoko, including Our Client’s business and social lives.
“While it is obvious to Our Client that the construction of the barricade within Ikare land is a grand design to provoke Ikare people, they wonder where these criminal elements got the impetus to impose tax on Federal Highway users.
“Sir, members of Our Client are law abiding citizens who are doing all within their capacity to avoid a breakdown of law and order along this route, even in the face of unwarranted provocation from these criminal elements.
“Our Client’s patience is waning daily and unless urgent steps are taken to stop the tactical blockage of the economy of Ikare-Akoko by the relevant agencies, Our Client might be left with no choice than to defend themselves and properties from these aggressors and their sponsors.
“It is on the premise of the above facts that Our Client is urging you to use your good offices to investigate this case and stop the blockage/collection of toll from Our Client and other unsuspecting members of the public, and hence bring the culprits to justice.”
Editor’s note: picture of story is an accident scene from Akungba Akoko.
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