Details emerged over the weekend that the Ondo State government through its Ministry of Transport has been overtaxing commercial motorcyclists in the state through excessive charges in collaboration with some unscrupulous leaders of the commercial motorcycle riders.
Details emerged over the weekend that the Ondo State government through its Ministry of Transport has been overtaxing commercial motorcyclists in the state through excessive charges in collaboration with some unscrupulous leaders of the commercial motorcycle riders.
SaharaReporters' investigation unmasked that through illegal ticketing and frivolous collection of dues, leaders of the Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN) were robbing their members of their hard-earned money on a daily basis.
The State's Ministry of Transport is headed by Nicholas Tofowomo, a two-term commissioner under the embattled Governor Olusegun Mimiko. Mr. Tofowomo was a former US-based tax driver before he came a close ally of Mr. Mimiko during the Labor Party era.
"The ACOMORAN leaders break the money into two, take a large share, and give the State Ministry of Transport the remaining as agreed by both parties," SaharaReporters' source said.
Leaders of the Association collect the money at designated junctions in the city of Akure in the form of charges called "incessant and frivolous" by angry commercial motorcyclists.
On July 18th, the embattled Commissioner for Transport placed an embargo on the use of private registration numbers for commercial cyclists in the state. He instructed that all Okada riders must get the state-owned commercial "red plate" number for their daily transportation business in the state.
"We [the State government] won't accept any registration plate number older than the ones from Ondo State," Mr. Tofowomo said at a meeting earlier held with leaders of ACOMORAN.
But on July 23rd, aggrieved motorcyclists in Akure protested against such action and the forceful imposition of frivolous charges on them by the State government. They also picketed against their leadership under Jimoh Obabi for collaborating in the State govnerment's extortion of them.
The placard-carrying protestors shut down government activities for close to five hours at the State Ministry of Transport and the busy Oyemekun road including other adjourning streets of the state capital.
In June 2014, the State Ministry of Transport had also come up with a policy that all commercial motorcyclists must be registered and get their "blue plate" private number at the sum of N7,500.
The policy was enforced by a team of Special Task Force known as "Sunshine Traffic Corps" set up by the Commissioner for Transport ostensibly to generate funds into the purse of the state government.
Commercial motorcycles are frequently confiscated under the supervision of the Mr. Tofowomo and are kept inside his office compound.
Other charges include the weekly N700 charged on rider for the Ondo State Emergency Medical Services Sticker, otherwise called an "Ebola ticket" among the motorcyclists.
The motorcyclists are also charged a fee of N150 on the Hackney Permit Daily Ticket by the Akure South Local Government authorities. Another ticket is the Road Transport Employee Association Nigeria (RTEAN) charged on a daily basis at the rate of N50.00 for all commercial motorcyclists in the state. Beyond that, there is a ACOMORAN registration ticket sold to the cyclists at the rate of N500 every week, and an "Eku Odun" sticker charged at the rate of N1000 in collaboration with the state government.
Moreover, following the protest staged by the motorcyclists last month, the State government suspended the activities of commercial riders in the state.
The Secretary to the Ondo State government, Aderotimi Adelola, announced the suspension following allegations that the protesting motorcyclists damaged and vandalized public properties.
The suspension is causing hardship for passengers, mostly government workers, since many have to trek long distances to access the main road to their offices.
"Since the suspension, we now trek long distance because some of us lives in areas where taxis does not access. At least, by 5:30 AM many of us should have woken up and get on the road since there is no more Okada [commercial motorcyclists]. We trek some kilometers before we could get cab to our office," a civil servant said.