Mr Sunny Opara, Director, Nigeria Association of Agricultural Products Dealers, in Rivers, has decried the use of arms by miscreants who are collecting illegal levies from truck drivers on highways.
Opara told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Friday that a truck driver, Mr Usman Murtara, was attacked and injured by the miscreants at Oyigbo in Oyigbo Local Government Area.
He alleged that the assailants smashed the windscreen of the truck with registration number Plateau BSA 906 XA, which belonged to Murtara on Thursday morning.
According to him, the illegal levy collectors also issue fake payment receipts to make their “business’’ to look genuine.
Opara said that the hoodlums always targeted truck drivers conveying agricultural produce into the state and extorted money from them, adding that the development had induced an increase in the prices of food items in the state.
He urged the law enforcement agencies to apprehend and prosecute the hoodlums and their sponsors.
“When the hoodlums are cleared from federal highways, our people will be able to buy foodstuffs at moderate prices in the markets,’’ he said.
Opara noted that in spite of the ban on the collection of illegal levies on highways, the miscreants had continued to intimidate drivers conveying agricultural products and collect levies from them by force.
He noted that prices of foodstuffs had gone up partially because of the activities of the villains who collected the illegal levies from truck drivers; thereby provoking a rise in food prices.
Efforts by NAN to contact Murtara, the truck driver who was reportedly attacked by miscreants, for comments proved abortive, as his mobile telephone line was not accessible.
The post Director decries use of arms by miscreants for illegal levies in Rivers appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.
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