…Insist: We’re not criminals
By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
A bureau de change operator in Port Harcourt has sounded it loud and clear that he and his colleagues from the north are not criminals but hardworking Nigerians struggling to survive.
He said this while speaking with TPCN in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
Condemning the attitude of the Rivers State anti-street trading task force towards the bureau de change operators of Hausa extraction, he said: “Any time they come here, they arrest our people. As long as you’re in caftan, you’re in danger.”
Narrating how he was forced to pay huge sums of money to bail some of his elderly colleagues arrested by the task force late last year, he said: “I paid three hundred thousand naira for the three people. And I took lawyer. I paid N15000 again before we got there and I bailed my people. Even, the lawyer was telling me to allow them to stay there so that we take the matter to High Court. But, these my people are old and some of them are sick; we cannot allow them to stay there. So, I needed to release them and after we can take action. Sometimes I ask myself, why are we in Rivers State? May be we’re not part of this country. But we’re not here to make trouble; we’re here to find our stomach (look for our daily bread)….When our people see them, they’re afraid. Some will run across the road and motor can jam them in the process. What we’re begging Rivers State is, they should allow us to find our stomach; we’re not criminals.”
One of the Hausa bureau de change operators who said he was arrested for doing nothing and taken to a mobile court at Ikwerre Road, where he was fined one hundred and twenty thousand naira, recalled:
“I explained to them that I didn’t do anything but was going to my brother’s place when they arrested me. They said they didn’t want to know and that I should go and pay N120,000. They carried me; we slept in prison for one week. I told them that I was not well; they said what concerns them? My village people sourced for N120,000 to come and bail me. I don’t know what we’re going to do. I have been here since 1981, the time when Okilo was here. He liked everybody: Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba. When Odili was here, he liked everybody. The time of Amaechi, he did this government but not like that. There were Hausa people here then, likewise others but this man came and he doesn’t want to see us… As the man no want Hausa people, let him buy trailer; anybody they kill, they should drop him inside the trailer and go and bury,” he lamented.
Confirming the harassment of his members by the task force, Vice Chairman, Presidential Exchange Bureau de Change, Isaka M. Sani, told TPCN: “My people are very angry now. Why they’re very angry is because they’re paying money. It’s only Hausa people they will arrest and we pay hundred and twenty thousand naira. We have the least people they arrested and we have spent more than five million naira. We calculated today all the people who paid the money.
“Now, they don’t even carry the people to court; they carry them to this Kala Police Station. They will not bring Abacha Road Police Station. They will not bring bail paper. They will just give them fifty thousand, they count it and see that it is complete and they will release your brother. I only tell my people to take it easy because they are very angry.”
Reacting to the death of the Hausa trader allegedly killed by the task force members recently, Isaka M. Sani said they would not blame Governor Nyesom Wike but the task force members who he said had abandoned the work they were sent to do and were now doing a different thing.
“For what happened, we cannot blame Governor Wike because it’s his people and order is coming from government house but they (task force) are doing wrong work which is not what they were told to do. I will only tell my people to take it easy because everything is from God. We believe everybody has his own time,” he said.
One of the bureau de change operators, Chijioke Chibundu, also lamented over their incessant harassment and extortion by the task force members, saying it is becoming too much.
“The problem of this illegal street trading of Bright Amaewhule, the thing is becoming too much. You see him arrest somebody where you will pay N120,000 for not doing anything. Yesterday they came here two times. They used to search people; if they catch you they will search you – that is zone 6. Everybody here knows. When they catch you they will search you, collect your phones, collect all your money. Governor (Nyesom Wike) should look upon this matter because the governor does not know the amount they’re collecting from people here; governor does not know that they’re collecting N120,000. The least money we pay these people is N50,000; I know governor does not know that one. They’re not doing what governor sent them to do. They’re now putting their own jara (extra money). If you don’t have money, they will take you to court or Kala police station; they will give you account (number) and you will go and pay that money,” he explained.
It was not possible to reach the head of the anti-street trading task force, Bright Amaewhule, for his reactions to the allegation, as at the time of filing this report.
However, a member of the task force (Zone 6 unit), who pleaded that his name should not be mentioned on print, debunked the extortion claim by the Hausa bureau de change operators.
“When they’re arrested and prosecuted for violating this law and later fined or bailed, they say they’re being extorted. We’re not extorting anybody. We’re only doing our work which is to maintain sanity on the streets and the roads.”
