David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi

A Nnewi-based businessman, Prince Sunday Okoye, has sent a Save-Our-Soul message to Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State over revenue agents’ harassment of haulage operators from Bridgehead axis to Onitsha, Awka and Nnewi metropolises.

Okoye lamented that the revenue agents who claimed to be working for Anambra State Government always used commando-style to waylay motorists at various checkpoints on the expressway to extort ‘huge’ sums of money from them.

He said that drivers who delivered goods to those major towns had continued to groan over the firm grip of the revenue agents who he said never showed mercy ‘unless their victims coughed out any amount demanded from them.’ He said the tempo had just increased after the nation-wide #EndSARS protests.

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‘Things are getting out of control on expressways in our State, especially in major cities like Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka. The rate at which those touts and hoodlums are extorting money from trailer drivers and other vehicles in our State is too alarming.

‘Drivers from other States are finding it difficult to bring in goods to Anambra State. Many have decided not to deliver goods to us at all and that is causing dramatic price increase of goods in the State. These boys are collecting money from post to post from the drivers. You find out that before the drivers will reach their destination, they will go home with an empty pocket. We need urgent attention to this issue.

‘A trailer drive was telling me that from Bridgehead to Nnewi he spent up to N40,000 to be free from boys,’ he said.