The Nation Newspaper

Tag: tricyclists

  • Tricyclists sue Lagos police chief over detention

    Commercial tricyclists have sued the Lagos State Commissioner of Police in Lagos at the Federal High Court over the detention of two of their colleagues without charge.

    They are seeking a declaration that the detention of Semiu Alabi and Mumuni Abolaji at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti since December 19 constitutes a violation of their fundamental rights.

    They are also seeking an order mandating the respondents, including the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), and the investigating police officer, Inspector Ojugbele Bola, to release them forthwith. The plaintiffs want N10million as aggravated damages for their emotional stress and psychological trauma.

    The applicants said their arrest Branch followed a disagreement over the control of Roundabout New Road park at Ajeromi, Lagos.

    According to them, the Keke Owners Association of Nigeria (KOAN) Ajeromi Ifelodun branch leadership asked Chairman Ganiu Dauda to leave the park for Alabi and Abolaji. Following Dauda’s alleged refusal to comply, the applicants lodged a complaint with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

    “The fourth respondent (Dauda) having sensed that the park is likely to be returned to the applicants, decided to use members of the police force to harass, intimidate and molest, the applicants,” they said in a supporting affidavit.

    They said they were accused of attacking Dauda, which according to them, was an excuse to detain them for fear of losing the park to them.

    The applicants said they fear they could be eliminated in detention, praying the court to order their release.

    Justice Mohammed Yunusa fixed January 5 for the hearing of the application.

  • Tricyclists accuse police of ‘new extortion tricks’

    Tricyclists accuse police of ‘new extortion tricks’

    Commercial tricyclists popularly known as ‘Keke Marwa’ in Isolo, Jakande Estate and environs in Lagos State yesterday decried what they called “new extortion tricks” by policemen.

    They described the trend as worrisome, noting that all efforts to reach the police command with their complaint have yielded no result.

    An official of the tricyclists’ union, who craved anonymity, told The Nation yesterday that members of the union had been reduced to “mere slaves” of the policemen.

    According to him, the officers, who are always on the road, now extort money from them by proxy.

    He said: “We cry out every day about the merciless extortion by the police, but no one seems to care or even listen. We are more or less working for them the way things are. Imagine that I alone pay them about N7,000 every month. Take the total number of all ‘Marwa’ operators around this area alone; then you will get an idea of what we lose to them.

    “Our association has a way of forcing us to pay a certain amount to some police officers, but these are the very ones who would unleash their junior officers upon us to perpetrate all manner of extortion. It is not that we accept or like it; it is just that we must pay it if we must remain in business. There was a time one operator confronted them but he lost his hand after spending months in the hospital. Some others who prove stubborn get their machines seized. These are the very unlucky ones. Once the machine is taken away to their stations, you will sweat and pay at least, N10,000 before you can retrieve it.”

    Another cyclist, who gave his name as Raufu Salau, said: “This is the situation which we have been enduring; we have written letters and made appeals. No one seems to care or listen. I should quickly add that we are not talking of a problem of one or two years. We are talking of what we have been facing for more than five years. We keep enduring. But for how long must we endure an error?”

    A landlord said their interventions had worsened the operators’ plight, noting: “Police don’t want anyone to come in-between them and those they are tormenting.”

    He said: “Once or twice I have tried to plead with them on behalf of some operators but they hated me for it. They would cock their guns and threaten to shoot. But these are not armed robbers; they are doing their own legitimate businesses.

    “Their excuse most times is the cyclists take the wrong way and thereby cause obstructions. But must you (the police) always apply the bayonet to force road users to order all the time. In the process of hitting people with the butt of your gun and the gun discharges, who is to blame for that? Nigerians must rise against what I see as open-day enslavement of all of us. We are all helpless and government is looking the other way. They know what we are saying.”

    A senior police officer described the allegation as “strange and unfounded,” adding: “The old times are gone in policing. Since the deployment of our commissioner, Mr Kayode Aderanti, and even before him, every policeman in the state knows that extortion is outlawed.”

  • Edun pacifies tricyclists

    MEMBERS  of  the Tricycle Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria (TROAN) in the Ikoyi Obalende Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State have been urged  to maintain peace

    A former Commissioner for Finance in the state, who doubles as Central Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the area, Mr Olawale Edun, promised to look into a “ban on their activities.”

    Commissioner for Transport, Kayode Opeifa had announced a ban on tricyclists plying major routes such as Obalende to Keffi and Obalende to Golden Gate, all within Ikoyi.

    The Branch Chairman of TROAN, Abdulateef Kolawole Adeshokan, who led his colleagues on a protest to the inaugural meeting of APC in the area, which was held at the St. Georges College, Falomo, at the weekend, decried the ban.

    “We are all members of APC who are law-abiding citizens of the LCDA. We were so surprised that the Commissioner for Transport is trying to take away our source of livelihood by banning us from the only viable routes that we operate with no genuine reason only that he just wants to see us off the road and replace us with taxi operators.

    “He had been using the Vehicle Inspection Officers, LASTMA and KAI officers to impound our tricycles and we believe it is high time we cried out to the leadership of APC in our area, especially our Senatorial Leader, Mr. Wale Edun, to help us out.”

    Edun, who was at the meeting, said: “I assure you that we will speak with the powers that be. We expect them to see reason and rescind the decision. I’m happy that as APC members, you did not take the law in to your hands; you organised yourselves in a peaceful manner. We’ll get across to the commissioner to see how we can solve the problem amicably.”