Chinedum Treasure
Onitsha tricycle operators plying Onitsha Main market to Oba, through Onitsha/Owerri road, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State have raised the alarm over alleged marginalisation and intimidation.
They urged Governor Chukwuma Soludo, to come to their rescue by fulfilling all the pledges he made to them.
Making the plea through their coordinator, Nnamdi Obumse, (a k.a. Mmili Enwe ilo), they recalled that government pledged to give them five per cent of the Internally Generated Revenue, gotten from them but that the government has not been able to fulfill its pledge.
Also that the Health Insurance Scheme to them and their families which they will benefit from as tax payers have not been given to them despite the fact that as poor people, that they are among the highest revenue generation organizations in the state.
They pleaded to the governor to revoke the suspension order on the Union stating that if done that it will assist the government to increase the revenue base of the union as they will handle the IGR by themselves and restore the lost glory of the union.
“The state government should also provide tricycles to us on hire purchase at a cheaper rate as most of us are not able to procure tricycles on their own.
“Now that the election is coming, it is Governor Soludo that we know and I have asked our members to ensure they get their voter’s cards that is power to vote and vote Soludo for he has achieved a lot in the state.
“Our problem again is that with the new payment system our problem has been worsened and we contribute 90 per cent of votes in the state and will vote for Soludo’s second tenure to enable him complete projects he has at hand.
“What he is doing especially on roads will make our tricycle to have longer life span. Before now Keke contracts were sublet to various contractors until government decided that we should be paying directly to it and we complied.
“Whether you work or not you have to pay and we have been paying till now that government ordered that we start paying through a new system, Trans-Pay, without lecturing us on the new payment system and that we should procure sticker for our Keke to be installed with trackers.
“As law abiding citizens we went for that and discovered that this new payment is worse and we want to return to where we were before because we don’t understand what is happening again. The two contracting films that we pay money to could not even reconcile the payment we make in the new system.
“The duo should reconcile their differences because when we pay to one, Inspector, it will admit that we have paid and the other, Trans pay will not and then the enforcement team, taskforce called Unified High Breed Enforcement Team, that enforces payment will impound our tricycles thereby frustrating us when we know we are not owing as we pay at when due.
“Based on this confusion one of them will send its taskforce to confiscate our tricycles when we put them on the road,” he lamented.
“If you are checked through Trans-Pay they say you are owing and if it is through Inspector they say you are not owing. The two contractors responsible for this payment, OASIS and Inspector, should settle their differences and allow us to be as we don’t owe them.
“OASIS and Inspector should settle their differences and allow us to be and this is one of the reasons we urge the governor to come to our rescue by giving us the contract of Keke IGR for our union because we are being exploited heavily even when we are not benefiting from the state government,” he lamented.
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