Commercial motorcyclists in Ilorin on Tuesday embarked on a protest against alleged extortion by the Traffic Control unit of the Nigeria Police.
An eyewitness, Jamiu Suleiman, told the News Agency of Nigeria that some policemen in the process of stopping a motorcyclist at about 10am at Challenge Area of Ilorin hit a motorcyclist with their patrol vehicle.
Suleiman said the incident aroused the anger of commercial motorcyclists, adding that this led to a violent protest in which police traffic officers posts were damaged.
Some of the motorcyclists, who spoke with NAN, said the police were fond of collecting N1,000 from them for no reason.
A motorcyclist, Sodiq Ibrahim, said most of the policemen who keep vigil in strategic areas within Ilorin metropolis were fond of extortion.
The Kwara Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ajayi Okasanmi, confirmed the protest.
He, however, said the police had never received any complaint bordering on extortion from commercial motorcyclists before the protest.
Okasanmi said the state Commissioner of Police had released three phone numbers to the public to report any misconduct by policemen.
He said: “We received information on the protest today and we went there to calm down the situation.
“No arrest was made so far and there was no casualties and the officers are still there.
“Since the protest is peaceful we didn’t arrest anybody.”
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