By Ike Uchechukwu

CALABAR-    CHAIRMAN  of the Tricycle Owners/Operators Union, Cross River State, Dr. Ekpeyong Ewa, has said that members of the union were not kidnappers and cultists as is being speculated. Ewa, reacting to the ban of tricycle (Keke) from 7.00p.m. within Calabar Metropolis and environs by the state government, as part of measures to check the menace of cultists, said no registered member of the union in his right mind would get involved in cultism because they know the union has their records.

•Dr. Ewa

He clarified that those who used tricycles in such acts were not “our registered members,” adding, “we collect their passport photographs, two guarantors and photographs, which we keep in our files in case there are matters of missing items or theft arising, we can know how to trace them.

“We have the data of any member, who is duly registered and we are willing to give useful information about them, we might not know their status whether they are cult members or not, but we definitely have useful information about them that we can make available to security agencies when the need arises. “But I am not disputing the fact that there are some people, who buy keke for the sole aim of carrying out crime or even give to their boys,    but I can tell you that many of them are not our members.”

We’re not against govt

He  described the directive by government as a welcome development maintaining that since it was in the interest of the public, all owners and operators will surely comply. “We are in support of what the government has directed because we cannot tell the government what to do. We also believe that the ban was due to some intelligence report so we totally support the government,” he disclosed. Investigations showed that criminals used kekes and taxis in most of the gruesome killings, kidnappings and violent crime carried out in the last two months in the state.

Police seize 12  suspected cultists, 12 tricycles

Over 13 people were    reportedly murdered within the last three weeks in     rival cult wars and in    nine of such cases, tricycles were used by these hit men to take out their targets, which prompted the Cross River State government to place a ban on the use of tricycles from 7.00 pm.

Ban on the use of tricycles

Cross River Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ozi Obeh, hinted that 12 tricycles used in some of the attacks have been impounded and 12 cultists arrested. Keke operators suspected to be cultists have since gone into hiding, while the Police have launched a manhunt for them.