Tricycle operators have raised the alarm over activities of officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) who they claimed have turned them into Automatic Teller Machines (ATM), where they draw money at will.
Uniform personnel, including officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) and the police, have devised means of milking the impoverished commercial motorcyclists and tricycle riders, report CAMILLUS NNAJI AND JOHN EDU
According to some of the operators, who spoke with NT Metro at their PWD park on Agege Motor Road, the LASTMA officials often force them to part with N10,000 each over spurious allegations. One of the operators, who gave his name as Bolaji, plies PWD-Ikeja GRA route.
He said: “They will intentionally lay ambush for you; they either charge you for manoeuvring or for illegal parking. If you refuse to pay the amount they demand, they will immediately book you and impound your Keke (tricycle).
“I don’t know whether that is what the government asks them to be doing. The government should look into the activities of these LASTMA officials.”
Another operator, who plies PWD-Ikeja Under Bridge, but craved anonymity, regretted that aside from their extortion, LASTMA officials have, on many occasions, caused fatal accidents on the road while pursuing operators. He said: “Many of the operators trying to run away from the LASTMA officials have been involved in accidents.
“Before the LASTMA officials come to work, they must have already made up their mind the amount they want to go home with.” Aside the LASTMA officials, another operator, who identified himself as Mohammed, said the park managers were also extorting as much as N1,300 daily from the operators.
“It is not only LASTMA, we are working for these park managers, they collect what they call ‘duty ticket’ which is N1,300 every day. We have to pay this before noon. We pay other levies also.
“For instance, I make N4,500 on a good day and pay the N1,300, buy fuel of about N1,500, I will eat and then be expected to deliver N3,000 to the owner, then what have I achieved for myself ?” he asked rhetorically.
When contacted on this issue, one of the park chairmen, Mr Stephen Adeyemi, agreed that operators usually have issues with LASTMA officials. But the issues, according to him, are settled with understanding.
On the complaint about their own extortions, Adeyemi denied such claims. However, according to him, every directive on what they do comes from their state secretariat at Ojota.
Also, the Head of Operations of LASTMA at the PWD, Mr E. Adegoke, denied the allegation of extortion. But Adegoke observed that tricycle operators were aggressive whenever they were booked for plying trunk ‘A’ roads.
He said: “The Lagos State Government has ordered that Keke must not be plying trunk ‘A’ roads like the Lagos- Abeokuta Expressway. They can operate on the streets in the municipal. “But you can see the one in front of my office; that is an offence.
When you book them according to the offence they have committed, they come up with one accusation or the other.” Adegoke added that government had even ordered that they should not be issued with number plates again.
As if taking a cue from that, motorcyclists plying Risikat Majaro Street, off U-turn Road at Abule-Egba on the fringe of Lagos metropolis, accused policemen of harassing, intimidate and threatening their lives in order to extort money from them.
“Policemen threaten us at our park every day. They extort money from us and when we refuse to give them money, they threaten us,” one of the motorcyclists said.
The Secretary of the riders at the park, Mr Emannuel Shokunbi, said they were tired of the excesses of the policemen. He said: “We don’t know why these uniform men have been disturbing our business. It is not as if we contravened any law and are operating on the expressway.
“At least, not less than five to six different police units come daily to trouble us. Sometimes they impound our motorcycles for no reason.
They will tell us that they are taking the motorcycles to Alausa, Ikeja, but a few metres from our park; they will call the owners of the motorcles and start negotiation. They usually collect nothing less than N5,000 from each of the motorcycle owners.”
Shokunbi added that before the uniform policemen started impounding their motorcycles, the rider’s union used to pay close to N20,000 on a weekly basis to different police units.
This, according to him, was to prevent the policemen from harassing the motorcyclists. “They have ordered us to move 100 metres away from the point where we used to park to pick passengers.
Moving that much, would mean, killing our business. It is not only bad for our business, but would be stressful for passengers.
I believe the idea is to frustrate us,” he added. Another commercial motorcyclist, Olawunmi Kolawole, said that he had once been a victim of the police extortion.
He said: “I was arrested last month at a filling station where I was buying fuel. They came in their van and asked me to pay N4,000 or my motorcycle would be impounded.
“I told them that I was not even on duty, but they refused to listen to me. They said that as long as I was on motorcycle, I must pay N4,000.
What I want to know today is whether this law stops citizens from owing motorcycles for personal use.”
Narrating his own experience, Opeyemi Animashaun, said that he was arrested at their park on July 1 and asked to pay N5,000 or his motorcycle would be impounded.
Some of the riders at the park expressed anger over their continual exploitation, stressing that uniform personnel have become a thorn in their flesh.
One of them said that the Lagos State Police Command should call its men to order.
“We want the police and the Army to call their men to order. They have their duties spelt out to them.
They should stop using every opportunity to extort money from people like us who are also struggling to make ends meet,” he said.
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