Nkechinyere Ewa-Okpara
Keke Riders Friday completely blocked the popular spera in Deo Junction Abakaliki in protest of what they called dual registration and extortion at every junction in Abakaliki.
The protest, which started around 12noon, disrupted human and vehicular movements along the routes connecting the Spare in Deo junction.
The protesters said one of the issues affecting them was the new registration of their tricycles as introduced by their leadership and the state government.
They alleged that the State Government, in connivance with the leadership of the union, is compelling them to pay for what they had done before as registration before the introduction of new registration in their union.
Felix Nwafor, one of the keke riders, alleged that they pay above N10,000 on taxes and other extortion weekly.
‘Daily, we are made to pay N500 as ticket fees apart from various amounts we also pay to various task forces that always stop us 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 the International market, you buy a ticket; if you drive to Vanco junction, you buy a ticket; if you also reach the rice mill, you will be forced to buy a ticket; if you also reach Spera-in-deo, you will buy a ticket, and a this happens every day”, he said.
He accused the Chairman of tricycle operators in the state, Uguru Nwabueze, of promoting multiple taxation in their union and imposing new registration of members.
But when contacted, the accused chairman, Uguru Nwabueze, denied the allegations against him, saying that there was no database for tricycle operators in the state until he came in and resolved that there must be a database in the association to checkmate crimes often committed using tricycles.
Uguru alleged that tricycles had been used severally to rob innocent people, livestock and other valuables, which made his leadership and the state government introduce online registration of members of the association to easily identify any tricycle used to commit a crime in the state.
He noted that he has pleaded that the registration exercise be extended to enable all the tricycle operators to register and has secured the release of all the tricycles impounded by the state Ministry of Transport for not being registered.
Meanwhile, normalcy has been restored in the area after the intervention of the state governor, who came and addressed the angry protesters and requested to have a meeting with the leadership of the keke operators in the state.