A frontline civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has described the restrictions to just few places the operation of commercial motorcyclists also known as Keke-NAPEP by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Bello Mohammed, as insensitive, not well thought out, irresponsible and elitist even as the rights group has expressed shock that such a major policy that will inflict pain and penury on hundreds of thousands of Nigerians doing legitimate businesses in the nation's capital was adopted without first and foremost implementing a workable remedial action to mitigate the untold hardship.

HURIWA, which admitted that the policy may have been informed by the need to sanitise the transportation system and create a the atmosphere of unimpeded flow of public transportation in the Federal Capital Territory, noted that the commercial operators of Keke-NAPEP and the residents of the FCT most of whom make use of public transportation services provided by these commercial motorcyclists were never carried along just as the policy was rolled out with adequate remedial provisions for cushioning the adverse consequences of the hastily delivered policy.

HURIWA stated that since the past three weeks or so that this draconian policy was enforced there is clear evidence that the FCT Chief of Administration who is a cabinet level Minister in the Executive Council of the Federation, Alhaji Bello Mohammed, never made fool proof Plan B to ensure that those who would be affected adversely by the policy are provided with alternatives to cushion the pains of the thoughtless policy.

The rights group said the way and manner the policy was introduced and is currently being implemented leaves much to be desired because if the government plans to ameliorate traffic challenges but ends up inflicting horrendous economic harm and physical and mental torture in a grand scale on the populace, the government needs to quickly intervene and bring about an immediate remedy to mitigate this unwarranted hardships that the people are made to go through due to no fault of theirs.

In the media statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA canvassed the actual and practical introduction of alternative transportation system that would replace the equally chaotic Keke-NAPEP because as it is the passengers made up largely of civil servants and the urban poor who contribute majorly to the sustenance of both the formal and informal economic sectors of the FCT are now going through hell and torments just to make ends meet in the capital city that they all helped to build.

HURIWA said the prevailing culture of torturing commoners in Abuja as if they created themselves poor by the ‘wayward’ enforcement of a transportation policy that is at best elitist is against several chapters of the 1999 Constitution including “the almighty” chapter four which includes such rights as right to life, right to freedom of movement and association which are universal human rights laws that the Nigerian state is obliged by law to observe, promote and protect.

“The policy is also discriminatory because it is targeted at a group of poor urban dwellers,” the rights group said, insisting that the policy infringes on the section 42 of the Constitution.

The statement further said: “HURIWA can confirm that many commuters are now forced to trek over long distances to get to their workplaces or wait for many hours to catch a taxi. Most Keke-NAPEP operators got to know of the ban when they came out to start their daily work, only to be chased around by policemen.

“Many had their kekes impounded which is a state sponsored robbery that offends the relevant section of the Constitution that guarantees freedom to own property as enshrined in section 43 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended).

“HURIWA has observed that the FCT Ministerial Task Team on Free Flow of Traffic joined forces with the Directorate of Road Traffic Services [DRTS] to enforce the ban on tricycles operating along Abuja’s major highways.

“HURIWA understands that the Chairman of the Task Team, Comrade Ikharo Attah, who led his team to join the DRTS’ sensitisation campaign, said full enforcement would not only restore sanity to the federal capital but would help in the fight against traffic gridlock. The Ministerial Task Team, drawn from various law enforcement agencies and civil society organisations, was inaugurated over two months ago by FCT Minister Muhammad Musa Bello.”

The rights group wondered “why government will unleash hardship on the people who are the real owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria and who have donated the legitimacy to government officials to exercise authority for public good responsibly.”

Update news