The leadership of the Tricycle Riders’ Association, Enugu State chapter, has moved against the use of the transport system to commit any form of crime in the State.
This is following the introduction of a unique identification number, which is to enhance the fight against crime perpetrated using tricycles, popularly known as keke.
The Chairman, state tricycle riders association, Mr Benjamin Ejiofor Ikah, while addressing journalists in Enugu, advised all keke riders to report any operator whose identity was in question to security agencies.
Ikay said “The essence of this security number is to make sure we know all the keke operators by their numbers and once it’s done like this, there will be no incident of using keke to rob people or do crime activities. Once you do that, you will be traced with your keke number as detailed in the form you filled and submitted.
“We are here today to complete what we flagged off last year. Last year we flagged off a campaign to ensure that all keke riders have a security identification number to support the initiative of His Excellency to make sure that Enugu remains the most peaceful state in the whole federation.
“This 2020, we are starting it with Mgbemene unit. We have up to 87 unit in Enugu urban. We were able to cover 38 unit last year. We have a lot of work to do this year but by the end of February we will rap it up.
“Like myself, my identification number is 01 and if I see anybody with that number, I will raise an alarm because any crime he commits with the keke I will be the person to be arrested. The data of such a person is not in our office and once the case is reported, we will search for such a person and arrest him. It’s your data that will be seen and you will be arrested if you see such a person and keep quiet.
“It’s also applicable to all the tricycles in Enugu State. We will give every keke operator a different number for easy identification. If you are number 10, you will be number 10 in the whole Enugu state”, he said.
Ikah said the exercise was already paying up as the State witnessed zero crime incident involving Keke riders during the yuletide.
“You did not hear anywhere that somebody’s bag was snatched last December, or ‘one chance’ involving Keke riders,” he said.
