By Chidi Nkwopara

OWERRI—Physically-challenged persons, yesterday, barricaded the entrance to the Government House, Owerri, to protest what they called “high vehicle branding charges engineered by the state Ministry of Transport”.

Some of the placards carried by the protesters read: “ Stop this massive exploitation “, “We need fair treatment”, “Rochas, call your Transport Commissioner to order “, “Give us a fair option” and “We can’t be slaves in our state.”

The siege mounted by the aggrieved citizens, not only disrupted free movement of vehicles into Government House for hours but also paralyzed activities.

The peaceful protest almost turned violent, when the Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Las Okaforanyanwu, made an attempt to address the aggrieved protesters.

Addressing journalists, the spokesman of the group, Chief Ukeje Ikechukwu, accused the committee in charge of vehicle branding, of allegedly extorting huge sums of money from physically challenged bus drivers.

“The committee collects N110,000 as branding fee for buses, but only give a receipt covering a paltry N20,000. The remaining N90,000 is not accounted for”, Ikechukwu fumed.

Continuing, Chief Ikechukwu disclosed that 15 of their physically challenged members “are now hospitalised, following the injuries they sustained, when we were attacked by government’s task force, a few days ago.”

According to the spokesman, “50 of our buses have been confiscated by the government task force set up by the Ministry of Transport”.

The Commissioner, however, denied that illegal charges were being collected by the committee.

He explained that the reason for branding vehicles “is to maintain sanity and reduce criminal activities in the state”.

It was his considered opinion that with the biometric number and proper branding, a bus or taxi could be tracked to any place if any of them is linked to a crime.”