Abuja 26 Sep (ANA) - Nigeria's Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has ordered the immediate removal of all roadblocks on the country's highways, the Vanguard newspaper is reporting. Mr Idris has also instructed all officers involved in vehicle patrols to ensure that they wear uniforms, clear name tags and service numbers. A statement issued on Monday night, widely reported in the Nigerian press, said the directives were necessary to make it easy for business to be conducted freely as well as to safeguard the free passage of travellers and goods. According to the statement, no police department or unit should mount a roadblock without express permission of the Inspector General of Police. Reports say teams of the special X-Squad of the police force have been deployed around the country with instructions to arrest and investigate any police personnel violating this directive.

The squads have also been ordered to be on the lookout for - and remove - and roadblocks set up by illegal revenue collectors, road transport unions, labour or trade associations. The statement added: "For avoidance of doubt, the Taxes and Levies act, Laws of Federation of Nigeria 2004 section 2 (2) disallowed any person, including a Tax Authority from mounting a Road block in any part of the Federation for the purposes of collecting any Tax or Levy."(ANA)

FA/ANA/26 September 2017--------