The drivers who were expressing deep anger when they brought the corpse of the deceased to Akwudo mortuary, Nnewi were shouting “no more agboros (touts) in Onitsha and Nnewi”.

A mass transit owner and the managing director of Oha-na-eze Mass Transit Limited, under whose platform the deceased shuttle bus, Awk 78 ZQ, was registered, Mr Justin Anyadike said the attackers never listened to late Mr Chukwujekwu’s plea that he had no money at the time he was attacked.

” We are surprised that these agboros are still troubling our drivers when Governor Charles Soludo had banned them from revenue collection.

“Late Mr Chukwujekwu’s bus had engine problem and he had to sell a portion of his land to raise money to buy a new engine. He replaced the engine on Saturday and decided to test-run the vehicle on Sunday to make little money having spent heavily to fix the engine.

“The agboros on Onitsha-Owerri road stopped him that Sunday to pay them N800.00 and he said he didn’t have it at that time. They started beating him up. Those agboros work for some people, the Governor knows that and the Commissioner for Transport knows that.

After that attack his fellow drivers rushed him to a hospital where he died and we later brought him to Akwudo mortuary from where we are taking the corpse to Police Area Command, Onitsha and if we are not satisfied we will take the body to Governement House, Awka, ” he said.

He explained that the deceased, from Utuh in Nnewi South Local Government Area was a father of six, who were still in their tender ages.

One of the drivers who gave his name as Cy said on that Sunday that the deceased came to him to report the incident and was bleeding profusely as a result of a sharp object, according to him, the attackers used to give him stabs on his head.

He said the deceased told him he had promised to pay the N800.00 to the agboros in his next trip since that was his first trip after being out of business for some time because of his faulty bus but they refused to let him go.

It was gathered that the the drivers pay the N800.00 daily to the agboros outside N3,300.00 they pay to the State governement every week. It was also alleged that the drivers always paid N1,000 each time they loaded either in Onitsha or Nnewi on a daily basis.https://d-21683934903793325857.ampproject.net/2307272333000/frame.html

The drivers insisted that Governor Soludo must sack the agboros from revenue collection or work in synergy with drivers who said they could show the Governor how best to do away with the touts.

Credit: Daily Sun