Joseph Odok|4 June 2016|4:29am
One institution that get its so hard from the Ayade's extortion crave is the transporters in Calabar. A taxi man pays 350 to 500 Naira a day to the state government while bigger vehicles are made to pay more. No wonder the increasing hike in transportation cost.
Besides the high cost of transportation, the citizens of Cross River State are often stocked like ice fish in the fridge for transporters to meet up their targets. The Keke Napep operators are not left out in the extortion drive of the Ayade's government. The brunt of these extortions is borne by the citizens.
Because of complaints, Ayade's government set up Mobile courts for fair hearing and to curb abuses of VIO on transporter and corruption manifest in extortions. But are the mobile court acting in accordance to their mandate or just an extension of government's primitive spirit of wealth acquisition?
A trip to the village for APC Stakeholders Meeting Boki chapter gave me a bird's eye view of the level of extortion of transporters and the injustice by the Cross River State mobile courts.
It was at Odukpani junction that our vehicle was stopped by a road block of the VIO. Then the driver was charged to the mobile court. Without fair hearing, a pronouncements of 28,000.00 Naira was the sentence on the driver for over loading. I could not believe my eyes but the mobile court judge made sure that the driver emptied all he had gotten from transporters before he could be allowed. Reason was sold to the wins in pursuit of money.
The money obtained from the driver was paid in cash with no evidence of payment by the driver. One wonders why the mobile court, Why the continuous extortion of our people even in the face of the hardship imposed on us by the skyrocketed jump in pump price of petrol from #86.50k to #145.00? Why has the internally generated revenue of Cross River State remain stagnant despite the extortions on our high ways?
They use the name, mobile court, to baptize and institute Ayade's corruption and extortion is the greatest harm to the judiciary. Ayade must stop joining others in bringing the judiciary to disrepute.
Joseph Odok
Is a University Don & Social Media Change
