By Suleiman Anyalewechi
Drivers operating under the auspices of Transport Company of Anambra state TRACAS on Friday May 10, 2024 grounded activities in many parts of Awka ,the Anambra state Capital ,following their peaceful protest march against alleged maltreatment and the extortionist tendencies by the management of TRACAS.
Presenting their protest letter to Governor Chukwuma Soludo at the Government House Agu Awka ,the leader/Spokesman for the protesting drivers,Okwudiri Felix,said the serial maltreatment and extortion of drivers particularly those plying Lagos Abuja and other highways have persisted despite contributing over #61 billion to the internally generated revenue profile of Anambra annually.
According to him ,the purpose of the protest is to draw attention to the ill treatment being melted out to the drivers by the authorities of TRACAS ,adding that they were forced to speak out to avoid having their legitimate businesses stifled by the insensitive attitude of the Management team of the transport company towards the drivers.
” Every driver that plies Lagos and Abuja highways pay loading fee of N15,000. We don’t know why the management want to stifle us with multiple levies .
We are protesting to draw the attention of the Governor to the ill treatment being melted out to us by the TRACAS management despite our contributions to the state revenue..
Recently ,the management directed that we should pay N45 000 for the Installation of trackers in our vehicles for the purpose of monitoring us.
We accepted to have trackers in our vehicles ,but on the condition that the management should pay for the project and not the drivers. We also told them that the management should sign an undertaking to bear responsibility for anything that happen to our private vehicles as a result of the trackers.
At a stage the Anambra state House of Assembly Committee on Transport intervened . But after ,three days ,the management commenced the enforcement of the trackers directive.
They will stop us on the highway and insist on collecting N85,000 for the trackers and renewal permit . We are therefore crying out to the Governor to intervene before the management drives us out of business” the leader of the drivers stated.
Further Speaking,the Secretary of the drivers union Benjamin Ogbonnaya alleged that the management in 2019 collected the sum of N29,000 from each of them for the installation of speed limit device in their vehicles ” But up till today they have not installed any and they want to force us again to pay N45 ,000 for trackers.
We are not against the tracking devices, but they ( management) must pay for them”
But reacting to the allegations against TRACAS management, Managing Director,Chike Obiakor ,denied the maltreatment claims by the drivers, insisting that the idea of the trackers was borned of the need to check mate evasion of payments of loading fees by the drivers.
” We are trying to install trackers to monitor their (transporters ) movements and activities because they are not paying their loading fees at our parks and we are paying heavily for that” Obiakor stated.
However, the Secretary to the State Government, SSG Professor Solo Chukwuluobe ,while commending the peaceful conduct of the protesting drivers assured that he relay he will.relay their message to the Governor.
Can you imagine a depot manager calling one if the senior officer of the company appointed by our amiable governor to be overseeing the smooth running of the company telling him that he is collecting money from drivers who came to his depot to pay their commissions without signing their waybills and that he the depot manager is writing down their LV numbers down so that at the end of the day the money collected from them will be shared amongst them which he the senior officer at Benin / Ondo state (Ofosu) con cured with. Too bad seriously
The managing director of the transporting being a great novice in the transport system have not deemed it necessary to probe his officers who have been diverting a lot funds meant for the company visa Avis the state into their private purses and all efforts to intimate him of the illicit deals of some of his dubios officers failed on deaf ears. I don’t think he is capable of handling that company seriously . A competent person has to replace him immediy otherwise the company and the state will be loosing the revenue we the drivers are making for the company/state to private purses