By Mary Ogedengbe/Lagos
Those who eke out a living from operating motorcycle (Okada) and tricycle (Keke Maruwa) taxis in the Lagos metropolis are lamenting that touts, known locally as agberos or area boys, are milking them dry.
In total, area boys and other sundry touts collect over N6 million a month from operators in Ikeja alone.
One motorcyclist, Moses Uga, who operates in the Ojodu area, told TheNiche that a substantial part of his N2,000 daily income goes to the touts, apart from N450 levy paid to unions.
Tricycle taxi operators part with N1,400 daily. They said even Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) officers extort them. They described them as area boys in uniform.
One of the operators, who identified himself simply as Taofeeq, said “we are getting tired of all this, we don’t make that much profit from this business and yet we pay N1,400 to unions and agberos.”
Another operator, who identified himself as Rilwan, showed receipts of daily payments to unions.
He explained: “Ikeja Local Government collects N120, Onigbongbo Local Council Development Area collects N120, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) collects N100, and Koran and Three Wheeler Unification collects N100.’’
Official levies collected from Keke Maruwa operators amount to N440 daily. The balance N960 is shared among different groups of touts, some of them self-appointed task force members, agberos, area boys, and omo-oniles (land owners).
Another operator who spoke anonymously moaned that “all these so-called agberos collect their own share, maybe they give part of it to the local government, we cannot say.
“We even hear the levy will be raised from N1400 to N1500. Our income is between N3,000 and N5,000 daily and we fuel our vehicles from this.
“We don’t know what they use this money for; all we know is that for you to drive a Maruwa in this place you must pay these levies. We need the government to come to our rescue.’’
Over 300 Keke Maruwas ply the Ikeja area. The N960 levy the operators pay outside official council charges amount to N288,000 daily, which is shared among task force members, agberos, area boys, and omo-oniles.
If we calculate with 300 Maruwas alone, apart from Okadas, the figure comes to N2,016,000 a week and N8,640,000 a month.
The area boys refused to disclose the amount they collect, but claimed that their levy is for helping to load tricycles with passengers.
An official in the information office of Onigbongbo Local Council Development Area, who did not want her name in print, said the levy collected is paid to the coffers of the council.
The council has nothing to do with touts or drivers’ unions, she added.
