The Delta State branch of the Committee for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) has issued Police Commissioner Adeyinka Adeleke a 21-day ultimatum to tackle the rise in cases of extortions by police officers on major highways or face a mass protest.

The state Chairman, Kehinde Taiga, who was recently elected as the National Vice President of the group issued the ultimatum in a press statement with a warning of a mass protest involving over 5,000 of its members across the state.

He Complained that cases of police extortion have become rampant, particularly in remote settlements and urban areas in the state, Taiga urged the police commissioner to take necessary measures to tackle this menace among his men and officers.

Mr. Taiga explained  that the ultimatum had become expedient in order to ensure that police authorities act swiftly in curbing this misconduct by his men on the road, adding that all official complaints and verbal reminders by the Rights body concerning these actions have been ignored.

The chairman also charged the police to put an end to the act of prying into citizens privacy by collecting their phones at check points and going through their contents in the name of detecting cybercrimes.

He insisted that there was no law that gives the police such a right to invade individual privacy at check points without first obtaining a warrant to do so, describing the act as criminal and unlawful.

Taiga said in his statement: “We are determined more than ever before to tackle this issue of extortion on major roads by the police. We cannot continue to fold our arms and watch policemen openly reaping people off their hard earning monies on our roads in the name of checkpoints.

“This must stop and that is the more reason we are giving the Police Commissioner, Mr Adeyinka Adeleye, a 21-day ultimatum to put an end to this or we’ll mobilize over 5,000 of our members on the major roads in Asaba and Warri simultaneously to protest this shameful act.

“Although the Police Commissioner has done well in other areas of crime fighting and adherence to the Administration of Criminal Justice Laws (ACJL), he still needed to do more in this aspect of extortion by his men and officers on our roads.

“I am assuring that failure to comply to this ultimatum would meet with a strong resistance, as I would not hesitate to use my new office as the National Vice President of this noble body to mobilize support both locally, nationally and internationally to ensure we put a stop to this day light robbery by the police.”