A serious crime is ongoing in Onitsha, the commercial capital of Anambra State following the unleashing of government empowered touts on residents.
According pieces of available evidence provided by victims, these revenue collectors permanently situated around Upper-Iweka, Down Flyover, Lagos Park and Ekwulobia Park are now beating up people, and forcefully taking their money while putting on uniforms given to them by the government of Governor Charles Soludo.
South-East Reporters gathered from a reliable source that the problem in Anambra started after the Soludo government organized a bidding for companies for revenue collection.
According to the source, the bidding was so intense that some companies bidto be remitting as much as N500,000,000 to government account, a situation that put the companies under the pressure of saturating Anambra, especially Onitsha with touts (Agbero) who now harass, steal, beat people without reaction from government.
A victim, Kenneth Obi said that the Agberos empowered by Anambra state government saw him and his friend, a Yoruba man who was traveling back to Lagos from Mbaise in Imo State and stole all their money beat them up.
“I feel ashamed as an Igbo man. What touts are doing in Anambra is criminal . I was beaten up like a common criminal in my land. What did I do?
“I was traveling from Mbaise to Lagos, I didn’t board vehicle from Owerri because we have something to buy here with my friend, a Yoruba man.
“We got to Onitsha, we saw people without bags crossing the road, we joined but surprisingly we were arrested that we didn’t use the pedestrian bridge. I was like, why only us?
“They said we had bags, that Oga wants to see us. One man with bags as well tried to challenge them, they started beating him like a criminal there. When they took us to their office, we were told our fines are N5000 each.
“I pleaded with them that the money we had was our transport money back to Lagos. They refused. We asked them to bring an account so that we can transfer the penalty payment,but they refused.
“I said, this is not fair.They quickly put hands into my pocket and took away my N50,000 and when I asked what they were doing they started beating me up , saying that I called them thieves.
“Right there, when the other man tried to bring out small money from his pocket to pay them, his money fell and they took it all and sent us away. It took the mercy of the driver we knew to help us leave Onitsha that day.
“I want to ask those asking Igbos to come back home to look into what’s happening at Onitsha. How can I be treated like this by my younger brothers. Right there, my friend from Yorubaland said he’ll never come to the East again.”
Another victim, Oluchi Okafor said that the touts are using commercial bus drivers and tricycles to set traps for private vehicles who will fall victims.
“My case was that I was going to work, as I met a gridlock, some commercial vehicles took a different route, I followed. Suddenly, almost all the private vehicles they can target were accosted by revenue collectors who came after us including me ,insisting that we defaulted the law of traffic.
“Meanwhile, as this was ongoing, commercial vehicles were still plying the same route without restrictions. It was then that I discovered that it was a plan.
“They insisted I must pay N50,000. I was there till late afternoon and they accepted N40,000 and insisted I must pay cash. This is what people are facing in Onitsha and when you talk, they beat people and present government ID cards.”
Mr Simon Uko insisted that Anambra State government is aware of what is happening, because if they are not, “why was there no public sensitization about the penalty for these offences and why has the government refused to show the people and offenders central government account to pay into?
“The government knows how much the touts paid to get the the contracts and must remit to them and still make profit at the end. Onitsha is now back to the horrible state it was during the early 1990s . This is happening in a state where a Professor is our Governor.”
