How FCT Motor Park Touts Are Tormenting Us – Commercial Motorists Narrate Ordeal

Last Monday, a Sienna bus going from Gwarimpa to Zuba dropped a passenger at Dei-Dei. While the passenger was trying to pay the driver, a car suddenly parked to block his car.

A man came out of the car, stretched his hands into the driver’s car, and appeared to be searching for something while the driver and his passengers just watched.

When he couldn’t find what he was searching for, he told his other colleagues that the taxi driver had no ticket!

Immediately the rest of them, about nine, all dressed in black t-shirts and trousers, alighted from their vehicle and surrounded the taxi.

Some started removing the number plates of the taxi while others were busy harassing the driver trying to negotiate with him about the fine he would pay. They threatened to drive off the taxi if he failed to do what they wanted.

By this time, all passengers in the taxi had disembarked and were watching the drama. They asked the driver to enter the car and drove off with him. The passengers were left on their own!

This sort of drama has become common on Abuja roads where motor park touts and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) have continued to make life hell for commercial vehicle drivers.

Some drivers who spoke to THE WHISTLER expressed their anguish over the hardship imposed on them by the touts.

Inuwa Daudu, a driver plying Kabusa junction to different parts of the FCT, alleged that touts and NURTW members work together to make life difficult for commercial motorists.

He alleged that touts sell NURTW tickets at different prices in different locations of the FCT and drivers are expected to buy the tickets at every location before they’re allowed to carry passengers. The ticket is sold at either N300, N200 or N100 each depending on location.

“If you buy those tickets from Kabusa junction and go to Mararaba, the ticket sellers there will tell you that it is not theirs that you bought, so you have to buy from them too. And all these are tickets issued under NURTW but every branch has its own amount they sell different from others,” he said., adding that when a driver refuses to buy, he would be threatened with arrest.

To avoid their trouble, Daudu said he procured a fake NURTW identity card so he could pose as a member of the union.

Ifeanyi Joseph, plying Gwagwalada to Kubwa, also narrated an ugly experience with motor park touts.

Joseph, who said he has been in the transport business within the FCT since 1996, revealed he stopped plying Area One a long time ago due to the activities of touts.

He said a tout at Area One park asked for all his tickets and upon realising they were all intact, he threw one into his mouth, chewed and swallowed it.

Joseph said he watched in horror how the tout called the police to arrest him until he paid N6000 to the police before he was let off the hook. “Since then I have avoided Area 1 park,” he said.

A tout at the bus terminal in Area 1 who spoke to THE WHISTLER without revealing his name, said any vehicle owner that refused to buy their tickets will be charged N15,000 once it is 12pm that day.

“It is a must for him to buy, and if he doesn’t, his car tyres will be deflated. Some will even be beaten by the marshal of AMAC and there’s no help offered to drivers in any way when they encounter challenges,” he said.

Amos, an eyewitness to a horrible accident caused by a tout chasing a tricycle operator, recalled his experience.

“It was all because of a ticket that the tout was forcing the tricycle rider to buy.

“The keke rider decided to speed off knowing that he was not a licensed operator, and the tout decided to give him a chase. The keke went into another keke that was coming fully loaded with four passengers.

“The passengers in the keke were badly injured. One was unconscious only God knows if he will survive looking at the state he was in, another one was vomiting blood. One man had his leg fractured with bones protruding. It was only the woman that got lucky and didn’t sustain any injury. She just stopped another bike and left. “

A tricycle operator plying Galadimawa to Gwarinpa, Usman Malam, also alleged that there are some places where they don’t pick up passengers due to the activities of touts.

He said touts will arrest them freely if they don’t buy tickets because they work for NURTW.

Malam said, “If you stop at CITEC, they’ll come and remove your key and take you to the police working around there. They will fine you N 2000.

“The union empowered the touts to perform two duties. There are those whose job is to catch and arrest us, while others are to sell the tickets. Those that arrest us are those regarded as the juniors and they don’t wear uniforms.

“Another thing is, even if you buy the ticket, they will still beg for money and if you don’t give them, they will begin to fish for fault, finding ways to arrest you.”

The touts appeared to have defied all attempts to stop their activities, and they seemed to have the backing of the NURTW and the Police.

Engr. Okechukwu Nwegbu, Deputy Director, Traffic Management Department of FCTA Secretariat, who spoke to THE WHISTLER, said touts are not allowed on the highways as they are not licensed operators.

He said: “There are organisations we gave licence to operate, like NURTW, painted taxis and their likes, but they are flouting the laws. They are supposed to be wearing uniforms.

“We have been calling the licensed operators for meetings about this issue of touting. Touts are not allowed on the road, so we’ve been trying to get them out of it.

“We are carrying out enforcement to remove them from the roads. We are forming some collaborations with transport operators because they denied that those touts are not their members.”

He explained further that the NURTW is also trying to force members to wear uniforms to differentiate them from touts.

Speaking briefly about the activities of the touts in relations to what the Federal Road Safety Service Corp (FRSC) is doing, Bisi Kazeem, Corps Public Education Officer of FRSC said:

“Due to the cordiality of the relationship that exists between us and the various transport unions, any time we see such acts or receive complaints in that regard, we advise the leadership of these unions to warn their workers who engage in such dangerous acts to desist from such.

“It is therefore only when it persists that in most cases collaborative efforts with the Nigeria Police Force, the DSS, NSCDC and others would come into play to halt such negative actions.”

However, commercial motorists in the FCT still groan under the strain of touts.