Ondo Traffic Drivers Protest over too-much Govt fees (Ticket fees) - SaharaTV

Human and Vehicular activities were yesterday paralyzed on the always-busy Ilesa-Akure-Benin expressway, as members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the Ondo state branch blocked the road for almost three hours, preventing the free flow of traffic.

The blockage was a result of a protest staged by the drivers over allegations of multiple taxation on their members by the State Ministry of Transport which they said as been “a tongue in the flesh.”

SaharaReporters has learned that the aggrieved drivers were chanting anti-government slogans, and solidarity songs calling for the removal of the Commissioner of Transport in the State, Otunba Nicholas Tofowomo.

Many of the drivers who spoke, also allege that Officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ondo State, collided with the Men of the 'Sunshine Traffic Corps' of the State Ministry of Transport. The collision is over billings spokesmen from the group claim their members have been hit with 'unnecessary taxes,' which they believe is illegal.

They revealed that at every bus-stop where they dropped their passengers, officials from the 'Sunshine Traffic Corps' always stop them, with embarrassing claims that have them demanding money for tickets that are not remitted to the state government's coffers.

In the words of one member, who declined to identify himself, "it is unfortunate that FRSC officers have now joined the Sunshine Traffic Corps of the Ondo State Ministry of Transport in holding us to ransom. Both of them have now work out a theory that by stopping us, where we park, it is an illegal place, and illegal for us to pick-up passengers in the wrong place.”

"The most painful thing is that, before you know what is happening” the source said, “they will surround you and chain your vehicle. Thereby, booking anyone caught (by this roving band) with a N25,000.00 fine instantly. If you don't pay, they will impound your vehicle, and they won't release it until you pay."