By EBELE ORAKPO

The rider of the Lawanson, Surulere-bound tricycle, popularly called Keke Marwa, was trying to avoid the many potholes on the road already filled with water from incessant rainfall so that the vehicle will not topple over.

“Oga, please be careful. You know Keke Marwa is not balanced, it loses the little balance it has and topples at the slightest upset,” said Tony.

Replied the Keke rider good naturedly: “This my Keke stand gidigba, nothing dey happen!”

“Abeg make I hear word. Okada is more balanced on the ground than Keke. Take it or leave it!” Dan said in answer to the Keke rider.

“That is a fact. Even the breeze from a fast moving trailer or lorry can cause Keke Marwa to topple over. I have seen it happen. The thing simply doesn’t have weight,” said Audu.

“Hey, stop there,” barked a policeman at a bus driver who immediately brought his vehicle to a halt in obedience to the policeman’s orders.

Said Tony: “All this barking is just to extort N100 from the driver! If you know how much I hate these people, especially the ones on the Itire-Lawanson axis; I hate them with passion. All they know how to do is to stop commercial bus drivers and okada riders to extort money from them and if they fail to pay, they may be shot dead and accused of being criminals.”

“ Hmm, here they arrest any vehicle they do not know the owner and extort money from the driver. That is their job along this route,” said the Keke rider.

“It’s so sad. Many innocent people have lost their lives because of this. It was so rampant before the coming of the present Inspector-General of Police who banned illegal check-points,” said Audu.

“Yes, but now they are gradually returning. Although you hardly see illegal check-points on our roads now, but they still stop vehicles to extort money from the drivers,” stated Dan.

“But, are these guys not paid to do their job of maintaining law and order? Are they paid to extort, maim and kill people? I tire oo!” said Tony.

Said Dan: “Honestly, if I were the President or the Inspector-General of Police, very early on a Monday morning, I will send two or three luxury buses and ask all of them to enter and they would be taken straight to Borno State to go and face the Boko Haram insurgents instead of harassing innocent citizens here.”

Replied the Keke rider: “For where? They will all disappear! In fact, most of them will prefer to resign rather than go to Sambisa to maintain law and order.”

“That is if they are told before hand where they are being taken to. There should be an element of surprise,” said Dan.

“No, the job of the police is to maintain law and order, that presupposes that there is already order so they are to maintain it. In the North-East, there is war so the army will have to restore order before sending the Police to maintain it,” said Tony.

Replied Dan: “All that na grammar! Since they do not want to face their job strictly in Lagos and other places, they should be sent to the war zone to help restore order. After all, they find it very easy to shoot and kill innocent unarmed citizens, so they should be sent to face the insurgents.”

“Good talk!” said the Keke rider.