The Enugu State Government has pulled the plug on all traffic task force operations along federal highways within the Enugu metropolis, ordering an immediate halt to the practice in a bid to stamp out a growing racket of impostors who have been shaking down motorists in the guise of official enforcement.
The suspension was announced in a statement issued on Monday by Kenneth Aniebonam Ugwu, Commander of the Enugu State Traffic Management Authority (ESTMA), and circulated to newsmen by Dan Nwomeh, spokesperson to Governor Peter Mbah.
Coming at a time when the Mbah administration has been tightening its grip on illegal levies and touting across the state’s transport corridors, the directive signals a hardening stance against fraudsters who have found cover in the chaos of multiple, overlapping enforcement units on Enugu’s roads.
According to the statement, the government’s hand was forced by a steady stream of complaints about individuals masquerading as officials of the Enugu State Ministry of Transport, flagging down drivers on federal highways and extorting money from them under the pretence of enforcing traffic regulations.
Officials say the scam has become sophisticated enough to fool even wary motorists, with impostors adopting the look and language of legitimate task force operatives, a pattern that has played out in other Nigerian states, from the notorious Kara Bridge extortion ring in Ogun State to similarly disguised “task force” gangs that have plagued Lagos highways for years.
The government did not mince words about the damage being done to its own credibility. The statement said the impersonators’ activities had tarnished the image of the Ministry of Transport and undermined lawful traffic enforcement, effectively turning a government function into a tool for private extortion.
By halting all task force activity on federal highways rather than merely warning against impersonation, as other states have done, Enugu appears to be betting that removing the cover entirely is the fastest way to expose and isolate the impostors, since genuine and fake operatives will no longer be able to blend into the same roadside crowd.
The statement disclosed that some suspected fake task force operatives have already been arrested in different parts of the Enugu metropolis while allegedly extorting motorists.
Those suspects are currently being interrogated and will be prosecuted according to the law, the government said, framing the arrests as an opening move rather than the end of the crackdown.
To sustain the pressure, the Ministry of Transport has set up a special enforcement team tasked with identifying, apprehending, and prosecuting those behind the illegal operations, a unit expected to work alongside ESTMA to track down remaining impersonators once the blanket ban takes effect.
In a move aimed at empowering the public rather than merely policing them, the government urged motorists and residents to report suspected fake task force officials or file genuine complaints directly through the Office of the Commander of ESTMA, promising immediate intervention.
It is a tacit admission that government enforcement alone cannot police every stretch of federal highway crisscrossing the metropolis and that ordinary road users, the primary victims of the scam, are also the state’s best early-warning system.
The government further warned that anyone caught harassing or extorting motorists under the pretense of traffic enforcement, whether newly identified or already known to authorities, would be arrested and prosecuted.
The ban does not exist in isolation. It follows an earlier crackdown in which the Enugu State Government banned all forms of illegal tolls and extortion of motorists by touts across the state, alongside the cancellation of all existing produce and haulage revenue collection contracts by various ministries, departments, and agencies.
That earlier initiative, spearheaded by the secretary to the state government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, was tied to the administration’s stated ambition of growing the state’s economy from $4.4 billion toward $30 billion, with illegal roadside levies viewed as a direct drag on that goal.
Seen against that backdrop, Monday’s directive reads less like an isolated policy tweak and more like the latest chapter in a sustained campaign by the Mbah government to strip touts, impostors, and unauthorized revenue collectors off Enugu’s roads and to draw a hard line between legitimate state authority and the criminal elements that have long hidden behind its uniform.
For now, the immediate effect of the order means no traffic task force, legitimate or otherwise, should be seen operating on federal highways within the Enugu metropolis.
Motorists plying routes such as the Enugu-Onitsha expressway corridor and other federal roads through the city can expect a noticeably different roadside landscape in the coming days, at least until the Ministry of Transport determines how to reintroduce a vetted, clearly identifiable enforcement presence or whether to do so.
Whether the ban succeeds in flushing out the impersonators or simply drives them further underground until enforcement resumes will likely determine how the policy is judged in the weeks ahead.
What is clear is that Enugu residents, for now, have been handed something other states have struggled to deliver: a direct, government-endorsed channel to fight back against roadside extortion.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Enugu State has suspended all traffic task force activity on federal highways in the metropolis not to weaken enforcement but to strip cover from impostors extorting motorists in the ministry’s name.
With arrests already made, a special enforcement team in place, and a direct complaints line through the ESTMA Commander’s office, the message to residents is simple: report anyone claiming to enforce traffic rules on federal highways right now, because for the time being, no such operation is legitimate.
