Touts beat Keke operator to coma for insisting on obeying Soludo

A commercial tricycle ‘Keke’ operator in Awka, Anambra State, slipped into coma on Sunday, after he got beaten by a group of touts.

The Keke rider had insisted on not paying cash to the revenue touts as directed by Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, in his inaugural address last Thursday, RELIABLESOURCENG.COM gathered.

Soludo had directed that commercial vehicle operators, including tricycle and motorcycle, should no longer pay cash to touts operating in the name of revenue generation across the state.

He said that an acceptable system of revenue collection would be put in place to ensure that people were not unduly taxed. In most towns in the state, touts print illegal tickets which they use to collect money from drivers.

A source who spoke to Vanguard said that the touts, numbering three, had accosted the Keke driver at the park close to the popular UNIZIK junction and demanded the normal N200 fee before commencing the daily business.

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The driver however told them that he heard the new governor warning people not to pay cash to anybody henceforth, a statement said to have infuriated the touts.

The tricycle operator was said to have told them to go and look for something else to be doing, as touting had expired in Anambra State, unless they were the only people who had not heard that Soludo had banned touting in the state.

But the touts insisted on collecting the money and told him they were not ready for jokes. In fact, one of them also told the Keke operator to call Soludo and tell him that they demanded the money.

They also told him that Soludo had just come, adding that he does not know how the system operates. It was at this point that they pounced on him until he fell.