The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Aba residents

  • Aba residents react to tricycle, okada ban

    Aba residents react to tricycle, okada ban

    Some residents of Aba, the commercial nerve of Abia State, have welcomed the restriction of commercial tricycle and motorcycle movement in the state, saying they hoped it would keep kidnappers at bay.

    Others were not quite sure if the restriction was what would curb kidnapping, some adding that it hurts operators who have families to feed.

    The state government, adopting the policy of its immediate predecessor, banned motorcycle operators from working in the capital city, Umuahia and Aba, while tricycle operators are allowed in both cities only between 6am and 7pm.

    However, motorcyclists are permitted on the outskirts and communities.

    Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Godwin Adindu, in a statement, said,

    “Security reports confirm that these hoodlums operate with keke (tricycle) and Okada motorbike.

    “As part of the security measures to check the activities of these hoodlums, government is hereby re-enforcing the old rule and order as it relates to the operation of keke riders and okada riders in Abia State.

    “Henceforth, Keke riders are only allowed to operate within the hours of 6am and 7pm in Aba and Umuahia, while okada remains banned in the metropolis. Okada can only operate in the outskirts and communities. This order takes effect immediately.

    “The Government is determined to maintain law and order and protect the life and property of the law abiding citizens and therefore warns all criminals and evil minded persons to desist from their evil acts or face the full weight of the law.

    “The government is also using this medium to remind the people to be security conscious and to offer information to security agencies through the free security toll lines”.

    A resident who gave his name as Chidi Madu told our correspondent, “It was a good decision by the state government. I’m sure you know that in recent times, kidnapping and abduction of Aba residents have been on the increase. Though the ones I have heard were entirely carried out using the individual’s car. But one cannot rule out the use of Keke to trail and whisk their victims to beat security men on patrol and those of them at strategic checkpoints.

    “But my fear is that some security agencies will take advantage of this to exploit the commercial tricycle operators. Government should also spell out their position on the use of motorcycle within the urban areas by security personnel whom it seems that those civilians were emulating to be riding their own machines on the road.

    Corroborating Madu’s position, a tricycle operator alleged “recently we were asked to remove the rail tarpaulin even when they know that we are in the rainy season and that we use it shield our customers from the rain. Unannounced, they (police) started stopping us and charging us. The amount of money you pay depends on your power to negotiate.

    They collect as much as N10, 000 from us. I am sure that their ogas are not aware of what their junior officers are doing. There should be proper sensitisation of the public before they start enforcing such orders.  Look around,  you can’t see any keke with the tarpaulin again and we are on the losing side especially when it start raining because no one want to be inside keke and being beaten by the rain.

    “For us to resume work by 6am is good, but I want them to also consider extending the time we close work. Let them please extend it to 8pm”, he pleaded.

    Another resident that simply gave his name as Ephraim while commending the government for showing concern over the security of its citizens also called on the government to also provide an alternative that would cushion the effect of the ban.

    “Government decision is good. But the problem I have with that is that they (government) have not been able to provide alternative means of transportation that would be conveying people home from 7pm till may be 10 or so as the case may be.

    “The order I was coming back from Port Harcourt. I actually came in very late and on getting to Milverton, I couldn’t see any keke that will take me home. I trekked home from park road to Ogbor Hill and you can imagine how stressful it was for me that day.

    If government is banning the commercial tricycles from operating after 7pm, they should provide alternative through which the people in Aba and Umuahia can get to their homes and don’t forget that there are places keke will enter and buses won’t because of the terrain of some places in Aba especially,” Ephraim said.

     

  • Aba residents protest poor power supply

    Indigenes and other residents of Umule, one of the Communities in Aba North Local Government Area were on Monday joined by shop owners located within Azikiwe, Tenant road and other adjourning streets in the commercial hub of Abia State using power supply from the public source to march round the city in protect against epileptic power supply by the service providers.

    The protesters in a peaceful protest that lasted for more than three hours marched through major streets in Aba with different placards with inscriptions; No light, no pay, Give us light, we want pre-paid meters, we are ready to pay. We can no longer refrigerate our soup, EEDC, why are you maltreating Umule residents? Please be fair to us, among others said that it has become necessary that they let the world know what they have been suffering in the hands of the southeast electricity managers since the month of January when they had power supply this year.

    Some of them who spoke to our Aba correspondent lamented that though that they have not had power supply in the last five months, officials of EEDC have continued to print and distribute fabricated and overestimated electricity bills on monthly basis and would proceed to disconnect and made away with their electricity cables after rebuffing entreaties to explain the peculiarity of their case in the last 5months.

    Mr. Kingsley Ofoegbu, a resident of Umule speaking in an interview disclosed that over 40 transformers within the Umule community were affected by the situation.

    Ofoegbu accused EEDC staff of billing them inaccurately as he alleged “some of their staff in charge of reading meters doesn’t do it. We have our meters and they are in good conditions till date. But what they do is that they (marketers) will sit in their office and send to us estimated electricity bills. Some of us pay as much as N15, 000 a month and yet we don’t see light.

    “The day that they will try to bring it, it will not stay up to 5hours, they will take it. We don’t have light up to 4times in a month and yet we pay such a heavy amount of money on electricity that we didn’t see nor use and because of the situation that we find ourselves, we spend more that N3, 000 every month fueling our generators which is not unfair and an act of wickedness. We are tired of EEDC deceit and that is why we want them to know that we are no longer going to be fools anymore. In this condition that we are now, anybody that will come to Umule to come and cut light will sign his or her death warrant before coming”, he warned.

    Some shop owners at Azikiwe and its surrounding including Mr. Chidiebere described the services of EEDC in Aba as very poor, wondering why the independent power project of Prof. Barth Nnaji was yet to commence operation “even when we learnt that the place have been completed since 2013”.

    Chidiebere who blamed management of EEDC of sabotaging the distribution of pre-paid meters in Aba expressed optimism that problem of electricity supply and overbilling electricity consumers would be solved once and for all in Aba if the Osisioma Geometric Power project was allowed to serve as a credible and alternative means of power supply and distribution to save businesses from further collapsing in the commercial city.

    The shop owners threatened to hold “a more serious protest in Aba if the power situation in Aba did not improve in the next 28 days”.

    An EEDC official who spoke anonymously attributed the shortage of electricity supply to the drop in the mega watts from the national grid, promising that their services would improve as soon as the situation at national improves.

    On crazy billing of customers, the staff said that they were also working to ensure that the situation was addressed and called on Aba residents and its environs to exercise patients with them even as the management of the Electricity Distribution Company thank them for their support and patronage.

  • Aba residents praise INEC

    Aba residents praise INEC

    Residents of Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State have commended the efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for holding what they described as improved election in Aba and its environs.

    They also condemned the invasion of some polling units by yet-to-be identified hoodlums to snatch ballot boxes, result sheets and other sensitive materials.

    Recall that a chairman of local government Transitional Committee Chairman in one of the local governments in the state was reported to have been arrested by a combined team of security operatives after it was discovered that in one of the cars in his convoy were some INEC sensitive materials.

    But our correspondent who monitored the election and later went round the city to feel the pulse of the people reports that unlike what obtained in the past, residents of the city have become politically conscious hence the increase in their awareness and unprecedented participation in the 2015 electoral process.

    According to a cross section of the residents that spoke to our reporter, the introduction of the electronic card reader was the best thing that happened in the 2015 general elections which helped in reducing rigging by various political parties.

    While narrating why she brought her results late on April 12 (Sunday), one of the corps members that served at Ohabiam Secondary School said she was helped to escape through the school fence when some hoodlums attacked her polling centre while they (hoodlums) made their way into the arena to snatch the ballot box.

    In an interview with our correspondent, Mr. Chiemela Okeugo corroborated accounts of ballot snatching in some voting units by some hoodlums, blaming some of the INEC adhoc staff for “compromising”.

    Okeugo, who also observed lack of adequate training on the use of the card reader machines among the adhoc, stressed that it was part of the reasons there was massive failure of the card reader machines during the presidential and National Assembly polls.

    He, however, called for the continued use of the card reader machine in subsequent elections, adding that training and re-training of staff on the operations of the card reader machine should be embarked upon ahead of the 2019 polls.

    He advised those that lost out in the elections to go back and analyse why they lost out in order to make amendment and re-strategise ahead of the 2019 and subsequent general elections.

    He urged those elected to represent the people to see their victory and election as call to serve the people of their constituencies, senatorial districts, the state and country at large. He was quick to remind the elected representatives that the people would, at the return of electioneering period, use their voting power to vote them out of office as was the case in the state at the just-concluded polls of March 28 and April 11.

  • Aba residents hail police

    Residents of Aba and Osisioma Local Government Area of Abia State have praised the police for their prompt response to a bomb scare which would have probably caused loss of life and property  in the area.

    Reacting to the scare at the headquarters of the Osisioma Local Government Area which was successfully evacuated by the police anti-bomb squad, the residents thanked the police for responding promptly.

    It could be recalled that there was palpable fear within Osisioma Local Government Area on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. following the reported discovery of an object suspected to be an explosive device.

    Police anti-bomb squad that were alerted promptly arrived at the venue to diffuse and evacuate the improvised explosive device (IED) which was later discovered to be a military grenade suspected to have fallen off from one of the soldiers on duty.

    A police source that pleaded anonymity because he was not competent to talk on the matter, commended the public for alerting the police, saying that it shows that people were becoming more conscious of their environment. He urged the people not to hesitate to alert the police whenever they suspected any strange object within their environment.