The entrance to the administrative headquarters of Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State in Oleh was yesterday barricaded by protesting commercial motorcyclists who bared workers and clients from entry the council.
Their grievance was the increase in the daily operational ticket from N70.00 to N150.00 by the state government.
The protesters who earlier converged at the Yanga Market junction of the Oleh metropolis at about 7am, brought commercial activities in the area to a halt for several hours.
Residents were the worst hit by the action of the protesters as they (residents) had to trek long distances to get to their destinations.
Similar protests had over the last two weeks, been held in Ughelli and some parts of the states against the increment in the daily levy.
Displaying placards of various inscriptions such as ‘We don’t want ticket in Isoko land’, ‘No more ticket in Isoko’, ‘No more union for Okoda’, ‘We don’t belong to any union’, amongst others, the protesters vowed that they would never comply with the directive.
One of the protesters, Mr. Andrew Omovigho, alleged that the levy was being engineered by some persons who claim to be members of a commercial motorcyclist union.
“For four years now, we have been buying tickets, but through our findings we got to know that the sales of the ticket are illegal. Some persons are using the state government name in selling the ticket. When we went to Asaba to know where the order for the sales of the ticket came from, we did not see any office were the order came from,” he alleged.
Other aggrieved protesters, Mr. Friday Oluboku and Stephen Omoru disassociated themselves from said the union saying that “we want to make it clear to everybody that we Okada riders here in Isoko South, do not belong to any union, we are fighting one course which is against the sales of ticket. We did not vote for anybody to head us, so we don’t belong to any union.”