Touts, popularly called agbero, mostly found along the highways and at motor parks are notoriously known to be nuisance to the general public. Worst still, they are seen as criminals unleashed by corrupt politicians intent on extorting money from already financially- stretched members of the public.
Their modus operandi are mostly forceful and violent. During elections, they became handmaids of politicians for various activities, including ballot box snatching, hitting squads against political opponents and other sundry roles with criminal undertones.
Unfortunately, these bundle of criminal elements have been unwittingly integrated, formally, into the internally generated revenue collection system of various states with targets to be met at all cost. In some states, they have uniforms that confer on them authority of government, particularly at the local government level.
In Anambra, their visibility and nuisance value is so pronounced to the extent of constituting headaches to successive governments. The reason for this obvious visibility is not farfetched. As a state with the most populous market and business moguls, business and commercial activities are always at their peak, thereby making business of touting in the guise of revenue drive both attractive and lucrative.
Before the present government led by Prof Chukwuma Soludo inherited the menace, previous administrations had battled touting with little or no successes recorded. It is as if the more the fight, the more the monster increases in both strength and size. Right from the first day of assumption of office, Soludo’s plans to flush out touts and touting in the State had not been hidden. Aside declaring full blown war on touting across the state, he placed total ban all forms of touting in the state.
One of the measures he took on assumption was introduction of a reformed digital tax payment system as the sole means of revenue collection in the state where residents were expected to regularly pay their taxes into designated government accounts and demand for their receipts after payment. According to him, the state-wide implementation of the reformed digital revenue collection system which took effect on July 1, 2022, had the primary aim of cutting down heavy taxation and closing the loopholes and illegal windows, through which the funds meant for the development of the state were siphoned or leaked into private pockets.
“This new technology-driven system will not only extinct the complaints and issues of multiple taxation in the state, but also help this administration in running a people-oriented and transparent governance which will be instrumental to achieving our vision of making Anambra a smart mega city State, and a more livable and prosperous environment,” he said.
While maintaining that Anambra remained Light of the Nation, and should ideally be a reference point in all ramifications as one of the developed States within the federation, Soludo resounded a note of warning to anyone posing or masquerading himself as government revenue collector in any part of the state, to desist forthwith or face the full wrath of the law, as his administration made frantic efforts to stop revenue leakage in the state.
On her part, Commissioner for Transport, Barrister Pat Igwebuike, called on transport Union members to embrace the new system, as they urgently acquire their identifications.
Again, while paying unscheduled visit to Upper Iweka, Onitsha, Soludo had vowed to clean and rid the area of touts and illegal structures. He announced there were strict rules for motor parks administrators to operate, stressing that all vehicles must operate within the garages, not loading on the established walkways. He warned that any garage that violated the directive would be locked up, assuring that Upper Iweka would no longer be a den for touts and criminals.
“It’s very unfortunate that disorderliness and lawlessness in Onitsha is driving away customers who intend to come from far away to trade in the state. We warn criminal elements perpetrating illegality and criminality in the state to leave or face the full weight of the law.
“If you must remain in Anambra, you must be gainfully employed. If you are jobless, enroll in the one youth two skills to be empowered. Those who completed the pilot phase will be empowered very soon”, he added.
Just last Monday, the governor launched of the Anambra Special Anti-Touting Squad in the State, with the same mandate of sanitising the State of touts and touting. While announcing that days of touts in the state were numbered with the establishment of the squad, Soludo however acknowledged the difficulty in restoring law and order in an environment of lawless culture.
He challenged Chairman of markets in the state to take responsibility of their various domains, warning that any market touts were still operating would be disbanded and Chairmen removed from office. He also called for commitment, passion, and diligence on the part of members of the squad, advising them to adhere to laid down standards and the code of conduct guiding their operation. According to him, members of the squad would collaborate with the Nigerian Armed Forces who have the primary responsibility to keep the State safe.
He said, “The launch of the squad is an acceleration on the key promise I made to the people living in the greater Onitsha area which consists Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Ogbaru, Oyi, and Idemili to restore Anambra state known for law and order back to its full glory as the Light of the nation
“When we assumed office, 8 local governments were taken over. Thanks to the combined efforts of our security agencies and the vigilante service with the support of those local government areas have been liberated and normalcy restored.
“We have told the youths to come out from their hideouts and the bush. We shall help to rehabilitate and integrate them into society to be useful to their families, communities, states, and nations.
“While dealing with hoodlums on a larger scale, we will be dealing with touts in Onitsha greater area and Anambra State as a whole. We are fighting a war to bring back the soul of our society governed by law and order not a society anyone does what he or she likes arbitrarily without recourse to law and order. Touts disturb customers who come from every nook and cranny of the country. But this journey is to rescue Onitsha as a commercial hub and Anambra State in general.”
The governor enjoined citizens to always remember the campaign of “if you see something, you say something”, promising that phone numbers would be made available to residents to inform the government of any touting activities they notice in the area.
Commissioner for Homeland Affairs, Chief Chikodiri Anara, on his part, had described the the launch of the Special Anti-Touting Squad as the beginning of the journey, assuring the Governor that positive changes would be noticed by December as the men of the squad were well trained. He warned hoodlums causing trouble in the state to leave the state, as they would not find it comfortable to operate in the state moving forward.
But whether these efforts by the Soludo-led administration have so far yieled the expected results leaves much to be desired. For example, to what extent has the reformed digital tax payment system of revenue collection in the state cut down heavy taxation and closed loopholes and illegal windows? A shocking revelation by Executive Director in charge of Operations at the Anambra Internal Revenue Service (AIRS), Christian Madubuko proved a far cry to the winning of the battle.
According to Madubuko, who doubles as leader of AIRS revenue mobilisation team, about 50 per cent of IGR accruable to the State Government is lost to leakages and activities of revenue thieves. “Government is supposed to be getting ₦4 billion from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) monthly but we have been struggling to make about ₦2 billion or less,” he said.
Worse still is the terror these monsters unleash on both innocent and defaulting residents, especially motorists and commuters on regular basis in the name of revenue drive. Reported cases of casualties and sometimes deaths had severally been recorded as a result of activities of these elements along different routes in the State. Most protests carried out by transport operators are touting-related. It is either the truck drivers blocking the highway over killing of their members by illegal tax collectors or bus drivers protesting over attack on their own.
Recently, two personnel of the Unified Hybrid Enforcement Team (UHBET) acting on behalf of the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AiRS) were sacked for alleged misconduct.
The officers, in a viral video were seen dragging a citizen, identified as a commercial transport operator, out of his vehicle and driving away in the same vehicle. Investigation by AiRS, according to a statement by Press Secretary to the Governor, Christian Aburime, had revealed that the driver, plying Onitsha/Edo State route, was double-crossed by the UHBET official with a ‘Keke’ tricycle and rough-handled him following his attempt to escape after being found guilty of N37,000 debt as indicated by online portal check of is profile.
Aburime had admitted that although the UHBET had the mandate to enforce every revenue payment accrued from commercial transport operators plying the roads of the State, its personnel were not supposed to be violent while carrying out their assignments.
Again, in Agulu, Aniocha local government area of the State, an elderly man, identified as Peter Uduekwelu was allegedly killed by revenue agents engaged by state government, an incident that sparked protests by youths in the community.
The protesters who accused the revenue agents of stoning the victim on the head which led to his untimely death demanded government’s quick intervention in tackling activities of the touts who they described as notoriously high-handed.
Narrating the ugly incident, one of the leaders of the protest said, “We are inside Afor Agulu market protesting killing of our brother by touts. They call them revenue collectors. They stoned the man to death. So we are protesting. We don’t want them again in Agulu. This land forbids these touts. They are only good at killing our people. We can’t accept that anymore.”
Amidst all these ugly incidents had been cases of arrests of these touts who claim to be working for government. Aside armed robbers and cultists, another group of criminal elements with high number of arrests in the State are touts. In less than 24 hours after inuagurating Anambra State Anti-Touting Squad (SASA), 64 suspected touts and other criminals were arrested by the squad around Upper Iweka, Bridge Head and Chisco Motor Park, Onitsha.
The SASA Director of Operations, Mr. Solomon Onwuemene, while parading the suspects at Onitsha, said the arrest would continue until Onitsha metropolis is rid off criminals. He said the suspects would be prosecuted accordingly if found wanting, just as he warned those still deriving pleasure in touting to repent and key into the government various initiatives to become productive.
Meanwhile, Residents of the state have raised the alarm over increasing and aggressive level of touting in the State, saying it was already a monster bedevilling the state. They expressed worry over return of different touting groups in multiple uniforms, intimidating, harassing and extorting people and motorist at every point in the state, including visitors in private and company vehicles.
Anglican Bishop of Ogbaru Diocese, Rt. Rev. Prosper Amah advised Soludo not to allow violent activities of touts to destroy his vision of the State, as a livable and prosperous mega smart city and a preferred place to live, learn, work and enjoy. He reminded the Governor that Anambra is a state with a rich history of giant strides, blessed with creative, hardworking and innovative people.
He regretted that the Governor started well on the assumption of office by banning all manner of touting in the state but later allowed touting to take the shine off his government, urging him to expedite action to stem the tide of touting before it becomes the most monster that will engulf the state and destroy his government.
While likening the aggressive return of touting in the state to what the Bible said about evil spirit leaving a person and going into the desert seeking rest and finding none, Bishop Amah, said that the aggressive return and violent touting activities in the state were causing the residents and visitors of the sleepless night.
He said, “Mr Governor, you started well by banning the activities of touts in Anambra State. Unfortunately, that monster is back on stage again in a more aggressive and violent manner which supports the scripture that says, “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none.
“Then it says, I will return to the person I came from. So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so, that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation. We pray that the activities of touts in Anambra State, will not degenerate to that level.”
