Abia State tricycle operators under the name Real Keke Operators Association (REKOAA) on Tuesday, June 2nd, peacefully demonstrated against what it termed the unjust revocation of its certificate by Abia State Commissioner of Transport, Chimezie Ukaegbu.
The group, which said that they felt unjustly done by the ministry’s decision to revoke their certificate for no just reasons, stressed that it has been making moves to at least get the attention of the state government on what they are passing through but have been blocked for several months.
Speaking to journalists, REKOAA secretary Jude Michael said that it is unfortunate that after working so hard during the last election for this present government to come in, they only paid them back by revoking our hard-earned certificate, for which we paid all the necessary fees they demanded.
“The climax of the story is that REKOAA is yet to start operation. This is inhuman treatment against man. We have appealed to the state government on many occasions, but they have paid deaf ears to us.
“Since they have rejected us, we won’t reject ourselves now. We have learnt our lessons, and we’ll keep living by that lesson. We have no option but to show what we’ve learnt. Elections are fast approaching, and our members will speak with a loud voice.”
Michael went further to lament that up till now, the Abia State Government has not told them why they revoked their certificate.
He added that under the leadership of the Abia State Tricycle Operators Union (ASTOPU), which they were forced to operate under, they cannot establish a good working relationship with the Abia Harmonised Taskforce.
“As a result, keke operators now offload passengers inside fuel stations, which is very wrong. The Harmonised Taskforce now hunts keke operators every day to make ends meet.
“ASTOPU and their disciples have recently introduced yearly waste buckets, which means that every tricycle operator must change waste buckets every year, against the wish of our amiable governor whose priority is the well-being of human services.”
He said that REKOAA members succeeded in bringing the criminality to an end by those bad eggs who were using tricycles to perpetrate crime, courtesy of their day-and-night tactical collaboration with security agencies to apprehend these bad eggs among the operators.
“Most of them have fled the state, and we will continue to do our best, as we promised two years ago when the state government wanted to limit our time of operations as a result of the high rise in criminal activities from those bad eggs.”
“This crowd you see today is the affirmation that tricycle operators are demanding justice for REKOAA. Competition is the key to every successful government, business, and venture.”
