5,000 Keke riders protest, shutdown Ebonyi over alleged extortion, illegal levies

By Uchenna Okeh , Abakaliki

No fewer than five thousand Keke riders in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi State on Friday protested and barricaded major roads in the state, to register their grievances over alleged extortion, illegal/levies by some taskforce.

The Nations News Nigeria reports that human and vehicular movements were halted for over five hours on at the spirando  junction, Vanco, Ishieke and many other areas, and thereby paralyzed businesses. 

The Keke riders protested against new registration of their tricycles as introduced by their leadership and the state government.

It was gathered that they were being forced to pay over six thousand naria for a fresh registration when they had early this year paid N1200 to N5200 for registration before the introduction of this new registration.

The situation attracted heavy presence of security agencies including police and army who came in their numbers and started throwing teargas to dispatch the angry protesters at spirando junction and other places in the state.

One of the protesters,  Moses Egede who spoke journalists alleged that they spent over N10,000 on  taxes and extortion weekly 

He lamented that everyday, they are made to pay N500 as ticket fees apart from various amounts they pay to various taskforce that always stop them on various roads and junctions.

“We are spending a lot on taxes and extortion by taskforce and security agents. If you calculate what we spend weekly, you will discover that we spend over N10,000 weekly.

“If you drive to International market, you buy ticket, if you drive to vanco junction, you buy ticket, if you also reach rice mill, you buy ticket, if you also reach spera-in-deo, you will buy ticket and this happens every day”, he said.

Another protester Nwokpoku Abraham, said tricycle operators were being treated as if they were no longer part of the state.

He alleged that they were paying N150 as ticket fee which was increased to N200, N300 and N500, describing it as unacceptable 

“In all these things, taskforce have not allowed us to work. If you park by the roadside, taskforce will jump into your tricycle and hold you. Most times, they will deflate your tyres or impound your tricycle if you refused to give them money.

“We are being extorted and intimidated a lot and this is why we say it must stop, this is why we are protesting”, Nwokpoku lamented.

He accused the Chairman of tricycle operators in the state, Uguru Nwabueze of promoting the multiple taxation in their union and imposing of new registration of members.

In a swift reaction, Uguru denied the allegations against him, ‘there was no database for tricycle operators in the state until he came in and resolved that there must the database in the association to checkmate crimes often committee using tricycle.

The Nations News Nigeria reports further that it took the intervention of the governor, Francis Nwifuru who later came and addressed the angry protesters before they agreed to vacate the roads.

The governor, Nwifuru tasked them to give peace a chance and however, summoned the leadership of the Keke riders Union and some selected protesters for a meeting tomorrow morning.