The Abia State Government detained three market leaders and other touts in Aba for breaching the new administration’s directive to ban all sorts of levies levied on commercial carriers in the state.
The accused were apprehended on Thursday in Aba during a monitoring operation conducted by Deputy Governor Ikechuckwu Emetu.
According to reports from the Deputy Governor’s office, those arrested were the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and Secretary of the Cemetery Market Stockfish Dealers Association in Aba.
Others apprehended during the operation were some touts who were caught extorting money from carriers in Aba, despite the government’s decree suspending levies.
While handing over the market leaders and other touts to the Central Police Station in Aba, Abia State Deputy Governor, Ikechukwu Emetu, stated that he embarked on the on-the-spot monitoring exercise to confirm adherence to the immediate suspension of all forms of levies payable to the Abia State government by tricycles, taxes, and other commercial vehicle operators plying Abia roads.
Emetu, who revealed that he obtained information of the miscreants’ ongoing extortion and illegal collection of levies before embarking on the trip, expressed dismay at the conduct of such touts, which he saw as an affront to Governor Alex Otti’s development programs.
He urged the Nigeria Police to guarantee that those who disregarded the government’s suspension directive were apprehended and charged in court as a deterrent to others.
He went on to say that such illegal extortions do not wind up in government coffers, but rather in private bags.
The deputy governor utilized the opportunity to notify all Abians and residents that the state’s new administration was out to rewrite the narrative of many years of deterioration and corruption, and he warned against future defiance of the government’s commands.
The deputy governor kept an eye on Ehi Road and Azikiwe Road by ASA, as well as Eziukwu and Cemetery Market.
