The Civil Liberties Organisation has commended the Anambra State Government for inaugurating a Special Anti-Touting Squad to end the menace of touting in the state.
The state Chairman of the organization, Vincent Ezekwueme, described the move as a “welcome development and a bold step in the right direction”.
During an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Enugu on Wednesday, Ezekwueme said that touting had become a major problem in Anambra State, with touts harassing and extorting money from law-abiding citizens, traders, and visitors.
“We recall with regret how a nursing mother with about six-month-old baby hawking face masks at Williams Street, near Main Market, Onitsha, was brutalised by morally depraved illegal revenue agents.
“It was through my intervention with other public-spirited individuals that the woman was rescued.
“She lamented that she made sales of N300 and the tout collected it from her and demanded for more, which she resisted, leading to her molestation,” he said.
Ezekwueme, however, warned that the Anti-Touting Squad would be ineffective if the government failed to set up a “Monitoring the Monitors Committee” to ensure that the squad operates in accordance with the law.
“The committee should be saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that the squad operates in tandem with the mandate handed to it by the governor.
“Its members should be properly and adequately trained, equipped, cautioned and advised to toe the path of civility, decorum, constitutionality, rule of law and respect for fundamental rights of citizens,” he said.
Ezekwueme also advised the members of the Anti-Touting Squad to be patriotic, humane, selfless, and civil in the discharge of their duties.
