Mrs Josephine Eze (not her real name) works as a journalist for a well-known daily newspaper in Lagos State. She is a senior correspondent with the newspaper, covering the crime and education beats. She had recently traveled to the east to attend her mother-in-funeral, law’s and on a fateful Wednesday, she was driving her family back to Lagos when she was detained in Onitsha and her car seized.
According to her, she was travelling behind another vehicle that was also heading to Lagos when she abruptly missed the vehicle due to traffic.
“I drove to a safe place and cleared off the road entirely to make calls to the other driver about his whereabouts, then suddenly, some people wearing yellow vests charged at me and collected my car keys and forcefully took us to a place they said is their office. They charged me for wrongful parking.”
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Mrs Eze stated that she did not get out of the car and that the reason for parking before making a call was to avoid breaking the legislation against making calls while driving. She begged, saying she was transporting her children to Lagos and wanted to go there that day, but she was ignored until she coughed out N30,000.
A Road Safety official in Awka stated he paid N5,000 as a bribe after his car was detained for going through the tunnel under the Aroma flyover. He was told that using the tunnel was a one-way trip. He argued that he was a road safety official who knew what was and wasn’t a one-way street. He told them that it was only on weekdays when the road is busy that people are stopped from plying it, and even at that, the road must be blocked with a caution sign to avoid motorists using it.
He told this reporter, “If you see how they jumped into my vehicle and started struggling over the steering with me, you will be surprised. I knew I didn’t do anything wrong, I also knew they were aware that they were doing the wrong thing, because they hid themselves and waited for someone they could catch. This was on a Saturday morning, and the road was very lonely. I became afraid they may rob me, so I offered them N5,000 and immediately they came down from the vehicle, I fled for my life.”
The scenarios outlined above are examples of the difficulties that Anambra State people have faced on a daily basis since the new administration led by Prof. Chukwuma Soludo took office.
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When the governor took office, he disbanded all motor park touts and made it illegal to act as a tout in any motorpark. He urged all such people to register with their local governments, as the government intends to train and rehabilitate them. People complain, however, that he ended up recruiting the same people and legalizing their actions.
In Anambra, multiple security, road traffic agents working for the State government exist, and they have now come to be known as official touts of the State government. They are brazen and daring. They are said to have been charged by the governor to show no mercy to those who run foul of the laws. They have several uniforms, and are also forbidden from showing leniency to anyone, no matter their connection.
Many people applauded the governor for this move, especially for a society where many people relish breaking the law, especially when they are very well connected. But many believe that the powers bestowed on them may have gone into their heads, as they are now lords of the road, and look at no one with pity at all.
Among these organizations are the Anambra Road Traffic Management Agency (ARTMA), the Anambra Task Force, and the OCHA Brigade. These agencies’ operatives are dreaded not only by road users, but also by traders in various markets, where many claim they also serve as ticket agents and frequently confiscate traders’ products.
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Some Awka villagers who spoke to Newsmen criticized the agents’ harshness.
Chiamaka, a banana seller at Aroma junction in Awka said: “The way these people behave towards us, you will think that they are gods. Once they wear this uniform, they will never accept that anyone is bigger than them. Since Soludo came, anyday they like, they will come and chase us away and destroy our bananas. They used to chase all these keke people like that before, but those ones too are also touts, so they now left them and faced us. This is what we go through every day.”
A newspaper vendor who related her experience said: “This is the first time that I am seeing an administration that will say newspaper vendors should go and rent offices to sell their newspapers. They are always chasing us around. Our leadership is still trying to meet with government officials to resolve this.”
Vehicle Inspection Officers are another group of brave individuals who have instilled dread in Anambra road users (VIO).
A motorist, Tobechukwu Uba said: “It is better I deal with police on the road or even Road Safety, instead of VIO. Soludo has so empowered them in the name of looking for tax that they are looking for every means to book people. What is annoying is that their charges are never friendly. They range from N25,000 and above.”
Meanwhile, the State administration has stated that it is striving to rein in the excesses of certain of its agents who unduly extort individuals.
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Mr Emeka Okonkwo, Managing Director of ARTMA, stated that unique numbers have been given to each of their agents and are imprinted on reflective jackets, and members of the public who believe they have been unfairly handled by the agents could call their office and report the agents to them.
On Wednesday, five operatives of the agency were fired after a motorist filed a complaint against them.
A press release by the agency stated that: “ARTMA disciplinary committee today outrightly fired five of its Onitsha-based ad-hoc officers for misconduct. From detailed feedback from a motorist, we were able to narrow down on five of our ad-hoc staff who extorted the user on the road.
“Mrs Okeke Chinyere (not real names) was wrongly impounded by the officers. Knowing very well that if Mrs Okeke Chinyere is brought to any of our ARTMA base, she would be released immediately and they will be penalised because they do not have a convincing video of her offence, they tried to play a smart one. They threatened her that she will pay over N90,000 (ninety thousand naira) if she gets to the office and then convinced her to pay N25,000 (twenty-five thousand naira) on the road.
“Mrs Okeke Chinyere was smart enough to pick the unique number on the vest of one of the officers and called the customer care number. Today, those officers were made to refund the money in full to Mrs Okeke Chinyere and lost their job permanently. Mrs Okeke Chinyere in her words appreciated the efforts of the ARTMA management in dealing with her complaints.
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“We advise road users both commercial and private to abide by the road signs and don’t panic when wrongly apprehended, just drive them to any of our offices and the video of your offence MUST be shown to you before you pay any fine. We will continue to pick out the few bad eggs in the agency so as to serve ‘Ndi Anambra’ better.”
Nwafor Emeka, with the unique number 266, Kosarachukwu Chinedu, with the number 259, Aniekwe Obiora, with the number 277, Nnamdi Ifeanyi, with the number 272, and Areh Uche Okechukwu, with the number 265.
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