Delta tricycle operators chide Police over extortion
Tricycle riders in Delta State have said that some police officers were extorting money from them.
They said in Asaba, the state capital, that the police used to collect money from them as if they were an automated teller machine (ATM) “where you can go at any given time to withdraw money.”
“The government said 10 p.m., but by 9 p.m. the police will started arresting us, and before they leave us, we are forced to pay N1, 000-N1, 500 to them. Most of us that operate till 10 p.m. is to meet up money to balance the owner of the tricyle and see what we take home with but police don’t allow us to work”.
Reacting to the development, the Chairman of the Tricycles/Motorcycles Operators Association, Delta State Chapter, Chief Obi Nzete, noted that even as the government had banned the operation of okada (motorbike) in some major town, most the of the security agents were still operating it.
He said that the security agent who ought to ensure proper implementation of the policy were also abusing it.
According to him, any security agents arresting keke operators before 10 p.m. is doing so at his own risk, saying that none of his members had reported such case to him officially.
He advise the operators to be law-abiding and be conscious of government’s time (10. pm), urging them to report any cases as he noted that his office and phones were on.
