EMBOLDENED by complicit state governments and politicians, commercial vehicle operators and transport union toughs have continued to afflict the residents of the South-West states. Among other acts of lawlessness, the recent violent clash between commercial motorcyclists and transport union enforcers (agberos) at Akute and Alagbole areas of Ogun State reminded Nigerians of an anomaly that enthrones extortion in the country’s most vibrant commercial hub. The governors of the six South-West states should stamp out the agbero menace without further delay and strictly enforce traffic laws.
Issuing tickets of doubtful legality which they compel commercial vehicle operators to purchase, touts, street thugs and assorted ruffians are active all over the South-West region. Backed by factions of the political class and aligned with incumbent state governors and political parties, they have a vice-like grip on the six states of the region.
Their worst iteration is in Lagos, the region’s and Nigeria’s richest and most populous, where factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers and others hamper commerce, cause traffic jams, and often render the state’s otherwise robust traffic laws redundant.
This nonsense has persisted for too long with negative consequences for the people. State governors and the law enforcement agencies should decisively end the agbero nuisance.
The fracas in Ogun State was reportedly caused by the revolt of commercial motorcyclists against the sharp increase in their daily ticket fees from N700 to N1,400 by the agberos. According to reports, shops were shut down and other properties destroyed during the clash.
The International Centre for Investigative Reporting in 2021 estimated that with 75,000 commercial buses in Lagos whose drivers pay N3,000 each daily; and N1,800 by each tricycle driver to ticket touts every day, the agberos fleece Lagosians of N123 billion annually through the illegal levies.
Reckless, aggressive, and rude, Lagos commercial drivers are lawless; they cause accidents, gridlock, and hardship for residents. The agbero phenomenon compounds the problems. Together, commercial vehicle drivers and union touts have created the world’s worst traffic jurisdiction according to a new ranking.
The agberos, posing as union operatives, are ill-mannered, openly abuse drugs and are violent extortionists.
Rather than a system where drivers pay at recognised points of collection, the agberos harass commercial drivers, and assault bus conductors, commercial tricycle, and motorcycle operators.
They are making life difficult for citizens; they proliferate at every bus stop, park, garage, and highway, including at inter-city roads, imposing their will on the people.
They are also active in Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, and Ondo states. Increasingly, the Lagos template where agberos operate at every bus stop, street and pathway is creeping into Ogun. Its handmaidens, cultism, armed robbery, and frequent violent clashes, have spiked, upturning the relative peace of the state.
South-West governments should outlaw and eradicate extortion, illicit drug use and trading and all forms of lawlessness at the garages, parks, and roads in the region. Such unlawful activities by non-state actors should have no place in the modern era.
Transport unions should adopt a tech-based mode of revenue collection for drivers without the menacing intervention of thugs and criminals. Law enforcement agents should enforce the law, prevent violence, and apprehend all those disturbing the peace. Traffic laws should be rigidly enforced. Police should stop the prevalent use of motor parks and their environs as illicit drug markets and joints.
Commercial vehicle businesses and operators, the organised private sector, and ordinary citizens should initiate protests and demand their liberation from the grip of the agberos.
