Ini Ekponta
Akwa Ibom, Nigeria’s South-South state, has become a major epicentre of commercial tricycle operations following ban placed on commercial motorcyclists in many states in the country.
The ubiquity of this mode of transport has made the Uyo city centre wear a new toga of the keke capital, as the aesthetic profile of the area appears defaced by the unruly characters who control the transport business on the metropolis.
Former governor Godswill Akpabio, desirous of bringing sanity on the capital, had directed his then Deputy, Obong Nsima Ekere, to enforce total ban on motorcyclist operations on the capital.
The ban took effect as government traded carrot and stick regime that those who could not take their motorcycles to their villages, should embrace the alternative of selling them off to government at the rate of N50,000 or risked being seized or totally impounded.
It was learnt the ban became necessary as criminal elements were in the habits of deploying motorcycles into sundry crimes including kidnapping, armed robbery, cult attacks, rape and hired assassinations.
Besides, the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), government and private hospitals as well as traditional bone setters were replete with cases of fractured bones and limps occasioned by motorcycle-related accidents.
Towards effective turnaround of the transport system with the absent of the motorcyclists, then governor Akpabio had launched several cars that would form the new transport order.
Straightnews, however, recalled that the scheme became botched as politicians, friends of government and other big men frustrated the essence of the policy by standing as proxies for unknown beneficiaries.
“The taxis were for the common people in the transport sector who were relieved of their motorcyclists business to own the car with which to sustain the new transport order.
“But surprisingly, the scheme was hijacked by politicians and friends of government, who used their influence to get the cars and later used them to ferry their children to nursery schools thereby defeating the essence of the scheme,” Effiong Bassey, a transport owner in Uyo, recalled.
“Most of the branded taxis were burnt and some vandalized during the 2011 election crises between Akpabio and Senator James John Akpan Udoedehe, thereby completely crashed the scheme,” he stressed.
To however fill the vacuum left with the exit of motorcyclists, the nearest alternative became tricycles.
“It started little like one man business and gradually people, mostly former commercial bike operators started embracing the business until it blossomed to become free-for-all business even for the unemployed graduates,” noted Dr. Stephen Akpan, a public affairs analyst in Uyo.
“Today, the Keke business has become a monster to be feared by other road users especially private cars,” he added.
He noted that the ban on motorcycle operations in neighbouring Abia and Rivers state led to the influx of tricycle operators into Akwa Ibom.
“It is difficult to have a seamless movement around the Ibom plaza axis without the red paint of orange paint of tricycle denting either the front, back or other sides of car after laboriously navigating the chocked city centre from any direction,” bemoaned Justina Etukuko, a civil servant.
“They abused traffic and drive recklessly without any recourse to sanity. Some would deliberately drive against the traffic and when you cautioned them, they replied with uncouth language,” she noted.
“Even the same transport crises of criminalities and other form of social abuses that led to the ban of motorcyclist operations are still rampant among Keke operators today.
“Tricycles are used mostly by fraudsters to fleece unsuspecting members of the public through hypnotism, drugs or lacing their victims with substance that drive them into temporary amnesia”, Nsifiok Samuel, a student of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) told Straightnews.
“I was taken at the plaza where I boarded the Keke to Ikpa Road. I met some people inside, greeted them and sat at the back seat. Before I knew it, sleep overwhelmed me as they engaged me to talk about my problem.
“They told me I have something in my stomach that stands against me and my fortune. They conjured something and lizard came out of my private part. It was there they told me they have the antidote that I should bring all the money I had, which I did.
“They told me it was not enough to buy all the things to use in solving the problem for me to be free. At that point, they took me close to my house and waited for me at Idak Okpo Street to go to my house and bring more money.
“They warned me not to tell anybody, or else the problem would not be solved. I went to the house and cleared all the money in the house but they persisted that I should look for more. I told them there is no money again and there is no one to borrow from.
“They said the problem would remain and I became afraid and took my ATM to the bank at UNIUYO where I withdrew all the cash and give to them.
“I only realised what happened to me on my way home and my eyes were like they removed some kind of veil on my face to realize that I have been dubbed and phones seized by criminals,” she recalled.
Worried by the development which led to rape and several missing persons in the state, the state Police Command at Ikot Akpan Abia, had to compel Keke operators to remove the leather coverings that shield passengers.
“It is to make the people see what is happening inside the tricycle because they shield the passengers with the leather coverings so they can be free from the prying eyes of the public and security agencies.
“So, the order came from the Commissioner of Police that Keke operators should remove the leather coverings so that whatever they do with passengers inside their keke should be seen and easily detected by the public,” the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Supol Odiko Macdon, explained.
Checks by Straightnews revealed that the menace orchestrated daily by tricycle operators stem from apathy by the relevant government agencies to put effective regulatory frameworks to curtail the excesses of the operators.
“Government is only interested in the revenues that come into the state coffers through levies on tickets sales, Ministry of Transport (MoT) and other sundry charges by shared to security agencies including the Police as well as leaders of different cult groups,” Udosen Inyang, a mini- bus driver told Straightnews at the Ibom plaza axis.
“You see them everywhere occupying every space with no sense of driving decorum. The Police would only come to the plaza and collect their settlement, different cult groups would come on their own day to get their own.
“Nobody cares whether there should be any need to bring sanity and regulate the system to make the city centre breathes from its current choked condition,” he added.
“Around the plaza here, there used to be some regular Policemen, traffic warden, Road Safety officials to regulate the activities of Keke operators around the plaza by UNIUYO.
“Even because of the dangerous nature of their operations here, the former Vice Chairman of Uyo Local Government, Mr. Udeme Ukai, had to take it upon himself to hire youths to provide traffic services around the area,” Nnamnso Essien, a student of UNIUYO, pointed out.
“But right now, those people are no longer there because there is nothing to bolster them to continue in terms of lifting their morale with cash,” he added.
Investigation by Straightnews revealed that the Commissioner for Transport, Hon. Uno Etim Uno, remains helpless in regulating the tricycle system as the business continue to spread all over the state.
Efforts to speak with the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the FRSC, Akwa Ibom Sector Command, Justice Agwu, could not yield as he did not pick several calls to his phone.
