The Human Rights Writers Associations, an NGO, has urged the Federal Government to return checkpoints as means of reducing bomb blasts and other criminal activities in the country.
The National Coordinator of the organisation, Emmanuel Onwubiko, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja.
Onwubiko said: “We want to urge the Federal Government to return all counter terrorism military checkpoints across the country.
:We want the checkpoints to be manned by trained, well motivated and well equipped soldiers.
“The soldiers should be deployed with state-of-the-art technology that will track down armed elements or terrorists.”
Onwubiko said the introduction of stop-and-search by the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, did not go down well with many citizens of the country.
He added: “With the daily explosions in the country, we are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse this order and bring back the military to the roads.
“This is because the military seem better trained to man the roads than the police.”
Onwubiko said the intelligence report cited by the police for introducing stop-and-search by its officers notwithstanding, Nigerians believed soldiers were better equipped to man the roads.
This, he added, was due to the increasing rate of terrorist attacks in the country.
NAN.