Business operations and vehicle traffic in Enugu, the state capital, were thrown into disarray on Wednesday when hundreds of commercial transporters and market traders flooded the streets to protest what they called excessive taxation and soaring fuel prices.
The protesters, made up of tricycle (keke) riders, minibus drivers, and shop owners, barricaded key transport hubs and roads around the well-known Ogbete Main Market, Old Park, and Holy Ghost area, cutting off access to the city’s central commercial district.
The demonstration brings to the fore worries about daily levies and state tax policies, which operators claimed were forcing them out of business as fuel costs continue to climb.
The unrest unfolded even after the Executive Chairman of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service, Ekene Nnamani, had recently issued statements defending the state’s tax reforms.
While addressing a revenue sensitization forum, Nnamani stated that the state’s informal-sector internally generated revenue climbed from under N100m yearly to N7.4bn after a technology-driven consolidation of levies.
The state government explained that the central e-ticket system, which costs traders N36,000 per year and requires transporters to make daily consolidated payments, was introduced to put an end to illegal road tolls and extortion by multiple agencies, including the Enugu State Waste Management Authority, the Enugu State Environmental and Climate Change Agency, and local government councils.
Yet operators present at the venue offered a contrasting version of events. Transporters claimed that daily operational taxes had been raised repeatedly, from N350 to N1,000 per day, across the past 20 months.
“We are forced to pay exorbitant daily tickets, park fees, and heavy fines if we don’t pay before noon, all while fuel prices keep climbing. Today PMS is N1,450 per liter,” said Michael Chieze, a commercial driver at the scene. “Now there are fears they want to push us out entirely.”
With traffic congestion impacting sections of the capital, police units and government officials were sent to the Ogbete-Holy Ghost corridor to interact with the protesters and restore public order.
