It’s the cry of law breakers – Minister’s aide
The guilty are afraid – VIO Spokesman
BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
Commercial vehicle drivers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja have pleaded with the Minister, Mallam Mohammed Bello, to call the Vehicle Inspectorate Office (VIO) operating in the FCT to order to prevent the impending showdown on the roads of Abuja.
The drivers, who claimed that the VIOs have turned them to cash cows on the road by extorting money from them on daily basis also said they are afraid of coming out to work because at the end of it would seem that they have been working for the VIO operatives all day long.
A taxi driver with a popular commercial vehicle fleet in the Territory, who preferred anonymity, told The Point in an interview that every taxi driver parts with at least two thousand naira on daily basis to the officers of VIO.
He said, “We are working for these VIO people. They take over the road from morning till evening, stopping and checking us. Whether there is fault or not, you must be forced to give them at least two thousand naira but when they check your car and find any fault, you must pay between 10,000 and 15,000 naira.
“We are tired of this. We are now working for them. We struggle to deliver the agreed amount to the owners of the vehicles we are driving, yet the VIO people make it compulsory for us to give them money on daily basis, if you refuse to give them they will ask you to park for the rest of the day. This is too bad.”
“These VIO people are like witches. They will collect money from you, yet, if they see you on the route where there are many passengers, they will be pursuing you saying there is no bus stop there. Do we have bus stops in Abuja or do taxis have garages?
“
Another driver, Kingsley Kola, accused the officers of VIO of not only extorting them but also preventing them from plying on the routes they will have more passengers.
“These VIO people are like witches. They will collect money from you, yet, if they see you on the route where there are many passengers, they will be pursuing you saying there is no bus stop there. Do we have bus stops in Abuja or do taxis have garages?
“The worst of them are those along the Apo Bridge to Bannex. They will hide at Finance Bridge, before you know it they will jump on the road when you stop to pick passengers and hold you. We have cried to the minister, embarked on strike yet nothing has changed. We cannot continue like this because we have families to take care of, house rent and other bills to pay and also school fees. The government is not helping us. We don’t want to take the law into our hands,” he said.
Okey Okike, who operates an unpainted taxi popularly called Kabukabu, said some of the VIO officers claim that it is what they get from the road that is used to pay them their salaries.
“Oga, we are the ones paying their salaries by force. If we complain, they will tell us that it is what they generate from us that the government uses to pay them their salaries. This is very bad. So, government gives them work and don’t want to pay them. Now they are forcing us to be paying their salaries.
“We are suffering too much. Police will disturb us, Road Safety will disturb us but these VIO people are terrible. They will tell you, you must give them so so amount or you will not work that day. The wicked ones among them will after collecting the money which is between two and five thousand naira, depending on the route they caught you, still make sure that they suffer you. The minister must do something about this.
“Look at the road. There are passengers but we cannot stop to carry anyone because the VIO people are also standing with the passengers. This Apo Bridge to Bannex route is the worst. They don’t give us any breathing space, particularly, between Finance Bridge and the Federal Secretariat.”
A commuter, who claimed to have witnessed the excesses of the VIO on the Apo/Bannex route as a civil servant corroborated the drivers’ allegations.
Pleading anonymity, he told The Point that he has been involved in begging the VIO officers on behalf of the drivers but none of them would accept the begging till they collect the money they demanded.
He said from his understanding, their targets are drivers of Brekete Family, Taxi drivers and unpainted taxis.
“I don’t know the reason. Oga, I ply this route from Mondays to Fridays. What the VIO people are doing to these taxi drivers and to some of us as passengers on this route is very bad. They are out every day to extort them. I have been personally involved in begging for them severally when they are arrested by them but our begging them has always been rejected. They must collect that amount they said they want to collect from the driver or he will not work. In most cases they will discharge the passengers and carry the driver away.
“Can you imagine one of them that I was begging, told me he does not pity anyone, all he knows is that he must meet the target given to him for that day. You media people should help us because it is we the passengers that are suffering it. When they extort them and also prevent them from carrying us from this place we are standing, the drivers will increase the fare as they have done now. A place we used to pay 50 naira we now pay 100 naira if we see taxi. In most cases, we trek.”
Another respondent who preferred anonymity for fear of intimidation told The Point that the fault is not that of the VIO. He said as a driver, he can boldly say that the leadership tussles among the drivers union has created room for whatever they are suffering in the hands of the VIO.
He claimed that they have failed to organise themselves and that every space along the road, some of them will form their own union and create a park there.
“You are living in Abuja. I know you witness the menace of these commercial vehicle drivers. They constitute 90 per cent of traffic law offenders. They beat traffic light, park wrongly, they stop anywhere to pick passengers. Worst of all is that they don’t have valid particulars and when the VIO arrest them, they will blackmail theM
“
Beyond that, they will be bribing the VIO, the Police, the Road Safety and even the task force to chase away other drivers from operating same root.
“I will not join them to accuse VIO. My reason is because we are our own problems. Okay, see now, from Apo Bridge to Bannex, you will have about six different unions. Almost every open space or junction, if we create a park, somebody will make himself the Chairman and the next thing is to start witch-hunting other drivers.
“Those who are power drunk will begin to bribe the VIO, Police, Road Safety and even the task force to pursue other drivers away from the route. This is exactly what we are suffering. So, I will not join them to accuse the VIO.”
Corroborating, a driver who operates an unpainted taxi but wouldn’t want his name in prints said, “our problem is not VIO but ourselves. Those of us who want to lead the union by force are the ones arranging (colluding) with them. They do not have vehicles they are driving. Every day you see them at one bus stop controlling drivers claiming they are executives even when there is no union. That is why we are in trouble.”
Responding to the allegations, Public Relations Officer of the Directorate of Roads Transport Services (DRTS), Kalu Emetu, said the directorate is used to such allegations from different quarters but noted that they will not be deterred from doing their work which is a mandate given to them by law.
“When we insist the right thing must be done people call you all sorts of name, level a lot of allegations against you. You know that is what is happening to DRTS. You may have heard when they say the fear of VIO is the beginning of wisdom. That’s just the way the public sees us and we have been trained to implement the laws, I mean traffic laws, rules and regulations in the FCT. You cannot see the level of work we are doing in the FCT in other states. The difference is our insistence on the way things must be done.
“If not the way we have been going you can imagine what would have become of the city. So all these things you are talking about is just in line with what I am telling you. They are afraid of their shadows. If they said they are being extorted, who have they complained to? This is my office; I will tell you it operates 24 hours. If you call me in the night I will respond. We have Savicom. All these offices are opened in the interest of the public.
“If they come here, or any of our services they will be well attended to. I’m not here to defend the management or staff. This office looks at matters dispassionately and on merit. The problem is that these drivers who are making these claims cannot stand before the officer they are accusing and say these things they told you.”
The Spokesman maintained that the DRTS is a directorate in the FCT Administration that cannot act on its own. He said whatever they do is within the confines of the laws guiding their operations as both a revenue and law enforcement agency. He claimed that their decision to carry out these functions unabated has made over 99 per cent of the public to see them as evil.
“We have the mandate backed by the law to carry out in this territory. DRTS is an agency that generates revenue for the government. It’s an agency that enforces the law. And put these things together there is no way 90 per cent of the stakeholders will say yes you are doing the right thing. They will see you as enemy because you enforce the law and make them to spend the money they did not want to spend.
“Now how do they spend the money? When they are on the other side of the law. Personnel of this directorate are empowered by the traffic regulations of the FCT.
There’s Cap 548 of Nigerian law which empowers the directorate to stop a vehicle on the road and ask questions, check whether the vehicle is road worthy or not.
When we do these, the users call us all sorts of names. You see we don’t regret that we are called names but what we regret is that despite all efforts we are making, people find it difficult to learn.”
Reacting to the claim by the commercial vehicle drivers, the Chief Press Secretary to the Minister of FCT, Anthony Ogunleye said those accusing the VIO are those who have refused to be law abiding.
Ogunleye noted that in every society, law abiding citizens do not have issues with law enforcement officers and added that if there is no VIO in the FCT, residents would come out one day and notice that some individuals have parked their vehicles on the centre of the road and enter into the garden to drink.
He argued that the commercial drivers are not getting the commensurate punishment for their offences yet they are blackmailing the DRTS.
“You are living in Abuja. I know you witness the menace of these commercial vehicle drivers. They constitute 90 per cent of traffic law offenders. They beat traffic light, park wrongly, they stop anywhere to pick passengers. Worst of all is that they don’t have valid particulars and when the VIO arrest them, they will blackmail them, claiming they are being extorted. It’s terrible. We have no complaints or report against the VIO.”
