Barely three minutes into its journey from Ilaro to Sango-Ota in Ogun State, a vehicle carrying fresh maize was stopped at a police checkpoint along the Ilaro-Papalanto road. It was in the first half of June, and the midday sun burnt the skin gently. The 2001 Sedan vehicle had no side mirrors, and the police officers, rifles slung over their shoulders, waved the driver aside. They exchanged a knowing smile. The driver knew the drill. Without argument, he slipped a folded N500 note into a waiting palm. The barrier was lifted, and the vehicle moved on toward Papalanto.

By the time the vehicle arrived in Sango-Ota, the driver had paid almost N4,000 in illegal fees and “tolls” at nearly a dozen checkpoints. From Ilaro through Papalanto, Ifo, Singer, Iyana-Ilogbo, Joju and Sango, “tolls” were paid in different amounts depending on the bargaining nature of the ‘toll collectors’.

“Sometimes it’s the police, sometimes soldiers or local government task forces and sometimes road safety officers,” the driver, Baba Igbesa, who had driven the route for over a decade, told PREMIUM TIMES.

“If you don’t pay, they delay or seize your vehicle. It’s even better here; it’s worse along Idiroko road because of the border route.”

Adijat Abolaji, a produce trader who owned the bags of maize and travelled alongside this reporter, told PREMIUM TIMES that those “invisible payments”, multiplied by thousands of trucks and vehicles carrying food items across Nigerian roads daily, form a hidden tax on every bag of rice, basket of tomato, tuber of yam, and bag of maize that reaches the market.

“People rarely talk about it, but that’s also a major reason why food prices are high,” she explained in Yoruba.

The toll that never ends

Extortion has become as predictable as potholes across Nigeria’s highways. From Kano to Lagos, Enugu to Port Harcourt, Ibadan to Ilorin, multiple truck drivers say they spend vast sums of money at checkpoints mounted by various security agencies.

Truck drivers, food produce off-takers and farmers lament that they are squeezed by a chain of illegal levies, multiple security checkpoints, and corrupt officials who demand “settlements” before agricultural produce can be transported to big markets and cities.

Experts say the ripple effect is a steady rise in the cost of transporting food and, ultimately, the retail price of foodstuffs in the market, a burden eventually borne by the final con