BY JUDITH OBIANUA
AN Asaba Magistrate Court has sentenced Burema Midiningawa, Victor Joseph and Ifeanyi Obinor for illegally mounting roadblocks and posing as revenue collectors along the Issele-Uku axis of the Asaba-Benin expressway.
They were found guilty on a one-count charge preferred against them and are currently serving their term at the Ogwashi-Uku Correctional Centre. In charge sheet No CMA/R/03C/2026, it stated, ‘’That you Burema Midiningawa, Victor Joseph and Ifeanyi Obinor and others at large between February 20, 2026 to March 12, 2026, along the Benin-Asaba expressway at the Isele-Uku axis of Delta State and within the Jurisdiction of this honourable court, did hold yourselves out mounted roadblock with logs of wood at night, compelled commercial vehicles conveying goods to pay you haulage fee of N10,000 per vehicle on the pretext that the payment is prescribed by revenue law, and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 64 of the Delta State Internal Revenue Service law, 2020, and punishable under same section of the law’’
The three defendants testified to the Court that they illegally mounted roadblocks and illegally collected money from commercial vehicles, as accused.
The first defendant was sentenced to three years imprisonment with hard labour or an option fine to the tune of N1.5m, while the second and third defendants were sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour or an option fine of N500,000 to be paid to the Delta State Government’s treasury.
