Commercial Motorcyclists’ Operators on Thursday protested over illegal dues levied on them by the Akwa Ibom Professional Commercial Motorcyclists Association (APCOMA), in Eket Local Government Area of the state.
The protesters who were no fewer than 2000 men stormed Eket Local Government Area carrying placards with the inscriptions, “which way should we follow? APCOMA or Committee’’, “Mr. Council Chairman, Please save our soul today’’, “Eket LG is so sensitive or popular for other government to follow’’.“Should we still buy two tickets and emblem? Please come to our help Mr. Chairman’’, “ should we still suffer from the hands of this people called APCOMA’’.
Mr. Williams Asuatang, the Chairman, Forum of Unit leaders of commercial motorcyclists in Eket, said that the two factions had been extorting money from the cyclists in the area in the name of revenue.
“We cannot find help in the hands of these groups of people namely APCOMA and Eket Local Government Cyclist Management Committee because many of us do not belong or affiliated to them,’’ he said.
Asuatang complained that commercial motorcyclists instead of buying emblems and tickets once daily are forced to buy them twice instead, adding that in the last two years, members of the body who refuse to purchase the emblems have been subjected to molestations by the APCOMA executives while others have had their bikes seized. He therefore appealed to the Chairman of Eket Local Government Area to educate them on how to channel their complains in the case of any unwarranted arrest by the police.
Reacting, Mr. Aniekan Akpan, Chairman of Eket Council Area, commended the commercial motorcyclists for conducting themselves peacefully during the protest. He said that APCOMA had refused to remit revenues to the council area in the past two years and announced that henceforth, commercial motorcyclists should pay their revenues to the Eket Local Government Cyclist Management Committee constituted by the council.
He said that commercial motorcyclists should report any illegal association extorting money from its members to the Law Enforcement Agency.
Also Reacting, the Head of Marine Services, Ministry of Transportation in Akwa Ibom, Mr. Isaac Ufot told NAN that the Ministry has the mandate to regulate the operations of tricycles, commercial motor vehicles and make policies on different modes of transportation in the state.
He said that the Ministry had never given any approval to APCOMA of Eket local government area to collect revenue nor approved payment of such revenue to the Ministry.
According to him, the chairman of Eket Council has the duty to regulate the operations of motorcycles within Eket local Government area and take appropriate action to ensure that a conducive atmosphere is created for the smooth running of transport operations.
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