PROTEST IN DELTA AS TRICYCLE, MOTOCYLCE OPERATORS VOICE OUT AGAINST POLICE HARASSMENT
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Delta State chapter of the National Commercial Tricycle and Motorcycle Owners/Riders Association, on Wednesday, downed tools in a peaceful protest over police harassment of its members.
The organisation urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to step in immediately.
During the peaceful protest on Udu Road in Delta State’s Udu Local Government Area, NACTOMORAS members claimed that officials from the Delta State Police Command were being employed by competing groups to hinder their lawful transportation company operations.
The protesters highlighted the death of one of their members in 2015 and the confiscation of over 150 tricycles and motorcycles worth more than N150 million as direct consequences of police actions.
They further stated that the National Human Rights Commission recommended in 2022 that the police stop harassing the association’s members in the state.
They remembered that the commission also recommended that the deceased member’s family receive N8 million in compensation.
Despite these recommendations, the organisation alleged that the police continued to harass and arrest their members indiscriminately.
During the protest, the National Public Relations Officer of the association, Goodwin Ikolo, maintained that they “are protesting the high-handedness of the Nigeria Police Force in Delta State over issues related to our operation.”
He added, “As law-abiding citizens, we belong to a noble association registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, and we are aware that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees freedom of association.”
Ikolo accused the Delta State Ministry of Transportation and a rival association of using the police, along with recruited thugs and touts, to obstruct the association’s operations.
He said, “They molest, witch-hunt, and arrest our members across the State, obstructing our business activities.”
Also speaking with newsmen, other NACTOMORAS officials, Felix Mamakpacha and Evangelist Solomon Isukuru urged President Tinubu and Governor Oborevwori to urgently rescue them “from the ongoing police harassment and the actions of recruited thugs and touts.
“We believe the President and Governor are not yet aware of our plight, which is why we are appealing before the situation escalates further,” they said.
When contacted on the incident, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, said that the command “only recognises and deals with the bodies known by the Delta State Government”.
The police spokesman said, “The association is proscribed in Delta, and it’s unknown to the state government.”
Edafe added, “If the leadership of NACTOMORAS wants to operate in Delta, they should go to court and enforce their right. If they have issues, they should go to court so that the court will give a verdict.”
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