By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

Some Tricycle operators in Awka, Anambra State, recently picked from their park at Unizik Temporary Site and detained by the Anti-Touts Squad have decried the ill-treatment meted out to them during their two days detention in Onitsha.

News Expressreports that the Anti Tout Squad stormed the Keke loading pit at Unizik Temporary Site on December 21, 2023 and brutalised seven members of Anambra Keke Drivers Forum, arrested others, while three ended up in the hospital.

According to the victims of the arrest who have regained their freedom, they were beaten with 2×2 planks without foods for two days in detention.

Some of the victims who spoke in Awka at their Christmas end-of-year-party. They said that their two days detention at the Anambra State Anti Touts squad facility in the commercial of Onitsha was like hell.

They said the early morning beating they received was dubbed morning tea.

Relieving his experience, the Vice Chairman of Keke Drivers Association, Unizik Park who was arrested alongside others, said: “When we got to the Anti Touts squad facility Onitsha, we slept inside their bus, and in the morning, they used 2×2 planks to beat us, hitting our legs and joints with the planks.

The Vice Chairman who didn't state his name, added: “They said it was morning tea for us. After beating us with 2×2 planks, they made us lie us down under the sun and continued with the beatings. It was when their ‘oga’ came out and ordered them to stop the beatings that they stopped beating us.

“Before me and others, they were telling some of the arrested Agboro that they will cloth them with ID Card and they will move them to work at their respective places. They told them that nobody will disturb or arrest them again in their pit but they should be making returns.

“They gave them their phone numbers to call them in case anyone came to disturbed them. Most of the Anti Touts members are recruited from the touts. There is serious problem because touts cannot fight touts,” he said.

On his part, another Keke driver, Chibueze Nweke, said that they spent two days in Anti Touts squad facility in Onitsha without food.

He said that though they did not beat him much, there were some people they broke their legs with 2×2 plank.

According to him, if the Anti Touts people are not properly monitored, they will destroy many people in Anambra State.

Also the chairman of Keke Drivers of Unizik Pit, Comrade JohnPaul Nnaegbuna, stressedthat the Anti Touts have no business coming to their pit because the park is privately owned and the State Government approved of it and it allowed park owners to collect fee from drivers.

He added: “When these men came inside the park, some people were wearing Unified Hybrid Enforcement Team (UHBET) uniforms while others were wearing state Anti Touts squad (SASA).

“I asked them who are you, they replied that they came to catch Agboro. I told them that there were no Agboro at our Park. I told them that everybody here is a Keke driver. I told them also that all the people in the park are Keke drivers and we know ourselves one by one.

“In the process of discussion, I had wanted to call one of our members, Mr Iwunor to come in and beg them, then one of them just pounced on me with knife and cut my finger. He said I was making calls as if making calls has become a crime.

“It was then that Keke drivers said no, you cannot come into our park and start beating our Chairman and others without any justification and they started protecting themselves.

“Then, they began to shoot and called for reinforcement and they came dealt with everybody in the park mercilessly.”

While expressing worry on what could be their fate outside the park, he lamented that the squad beat them up and vandalised their vehicles right inside the park, without justification.

Nnaegbuna further described he detention facility as an unapproved facility that is an improvised hidden camp meant for torturing.

He appealed to the state government to intervene and repair the damaged vehicles which were the only source of livelihood for the affected drivers and payment of their monthly taxes.

The activities of touts have recently become a source of worry to the Soludo government, hence the establishment of the anti touts unit by the state Governor but there are concerns that those trying to curb touting in the state were far more dangerous than the touts they seek to remove from the system.