Inside Lagos truck drivers’ deadly battle with ‘extortion bandits’
Inside Lagos truck drivers’ deadly battle with ‘extortion bandits’
Amarachi Okeh writes on the nefarious activities of informal tax collectors, popularly called Agberos, who brazenly impose unauthorised taxes on unsuspecting truck drivers on Lagos roads, hereby perpetuating a cycle of unlawful practices and endangering public safety in the state
Lagos, the bustling megacity of Nigeria, is renowned for its chaotic traffic, streams of vehicles, and an economy driven by both formal and informal sectors.
At the centre, there exists a hidden, more sinister side – a network of brutal informal tax collectors, known as Agberos, enforcing illegal fees on truck drivers trying to earn a living on the congested roads.
These tax collectors, often armed with weapons, including sticks, pipes, and irons, and working under the guise of transport unions like the National Union of Road Transport Workers or the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria, have created a fearful environment for anyone operating large vehicles in the city.
Tragic encounter
On March 23, 2023, Sodiq Tijani, a truck driver operating in Lagos, left his home unaware that his life was about to change forever.
While driving his truck carrying a container along the road, Tijani was stopped by men associated with the road transport union. What began as a simple request for money escalated into violence when Tijani, unable to pay the full amount demanded, offered them less. The situation quickly became chaotic.
“It happened under the bridge in Ijora; they (tax collectors) stopped me as I was heading to Apapa and said I must give them N500 to pass but I didn’t have the money. So I came down, begged, told them I only had N200, and urged them to help me manage the money.
“The next thing I saw was that they started attacking me. One of them brought out a pipe and used it to hit my eye. Since then, I have not been able to see with that eye,” Tijani recounted, his voice tinged with frustration and grief.
“Before that attack, I could see with the eye,” he said. “Now, everything is different.”
A fatal outcome
While Tijani survived his harrowing experience, many are not so fortunate. One such tragedy unfolded when another truck driver, identified only as Otunba, encountered a fatal attack at the hands of the notorious tax collectors.
Otunba, described as a gentle and peace-loving man by his friend, Olawale Fabunmi, was on his way from Lagos to Oyo State when his journey took a tragic turn.
After encountering a minor mechanical fault in his truck amidst the heavy traffic in the Berger area of Lagos, Otunba stopped to make a quick fix. As he prepared to resume his journey, a group of armed men appeared and demanded payment.
“He said he did not have any money and started begging them. His pleas enraged them. We gathered that they attacked him with cutlass, plank and pipe and beat him mercilessly all over his body. His motor boy was lucky to run away,” Fabunmi said.
Despite his injuries, Otunba somehow managed to get back into his truck and drive on, determined to make it to Ibadan, where he hoped to find medical assistance and reunite with his family.
But by the time he reached Ibadan, his strength had drastically reduced, prompting his family members to rush him to the University College Hospital in critical condition.
“It was from there he called his superiors to tell them what happened. The next thing we heard three days later was that Otunba was dead,” Fabunmi said in a sorrowful voice.
Following Otunba’s passing two years ago, the aggression and assaults by agberos on Lagos roads have escalated, resulting in a trail of shattered lives, wrecked vehicles, and families left in despair.
Abandoning truck driving
For truck drivers in Lagos, every day on the job feels like a gamble. If they refuse to part away with money when conveying goods in the state, they risk being attacked by these lawless tax collectors, or parts of their vehicles vandalised.
Adesina Sheriff, a driver in his 30s, bears the scars of his close encounters with these extortionists. His face, marked by cuts and bruises from previous attacks, serves as a stark reminder of the constant danger he faces on the road.
According to him, these informal tax collectors are usually stationed at strategic locations often plied by truck drivers, waiting for him and his colleagues to pay before being allowed to move containers to and from various points along the road, creating a harsh daily reality for them.
“Twice they (tax collectors) have injured me,” he told our correspondent. “They must stop all this thing, enough is enough,” he said with a resolute voice.
He and his fellow drivers had recently taken their grievances to the Nigeria Shppers Council office in Apapa, desperate for intervention.
Recalling one of his near-fatal encounters, Sheriff described how, last year, while driving through Tin Can Island on his way to Oshodi, he was stopped by a group of agberos who demanded money.
When he offered them N500, the sum he had on hand, one of the men struck him near the eye with a metal pipe.
“I started bleeding and stopped the vehicle in the middle of the road, causing a traffic build-up. They surrounded my vehicle and insisted that I ‘settle’ them right there.
“They didn’t care that I was bleeding. An army officer there advised me to give them the money to avoid more problems. I handed over another N1000, and that’s when they finally let me go,” the truck driver said.
Sharing another encounter with them on August 15, 2023, Sheriff, while describing the incident as a distressing episode, said the agberos, who extorted money from him, were clad in the uniform of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers, donning white shirts and green trousers.
He said the agberos rushed towards him and aggressively demanded money, claiming that he owed them.
When Sheriff said he didn’t have any money to give them, he said they brutally attacked him with cutlasses and sticks, forcing him to abandon his vehicle and flee for his life.
“I ran to board a motorcycle but they pulled me down from it. When I fell, I sustained a cut on my face,” he said. “We are not working with them or for them so if they want to collect any money from us, it should be from the organisations and not the truck drivers.
“The truck owners don’t give us any money for them because there is nowhere that says we must pay taxes to them. When I am driving, they are always in my mind and I am always scared of my life.
“From Mile 2 to Agbara, we spend almost N120,000 paying agberos on the road. If you don’t pay they will injure you and nobody will rescue you. So, we need the government to do something about this.”
Another truck driver, Oluwadare Taiwo, who is the secretary of the Maritime Truck Drivers Association, said he drives on the road with unease, noting that the association usually received reports of attacks and harassment its members face daily at the hands of the tax collectors.
On several occasions, Taiwo said he had been attacked by the hoodlums who demanded money from them on the road without a reason.
Recalling an experience, he said, “I was moving a container from Tin Can to Amuwo Odofin but when I got to a place called Ekumodino, I was beaten mercilessly by those boys.
“They said I must give them N5,000 before I continue to go and drop the client’s container. I was frustrated because I only had the money I was paid for the job and they were expecting me to give them money.
“I told them that the owner of the truck did not give me money to give to anybody and that was how they descended on me and beat the hell out of me that day for refusing to give them money.”
Faced with the daily threat of violence and extortion, many truck drivers have abandoned the job. Some have switched to driving smaller vehicles, like shuttle buses (korope) or commercial tricycles (maruwa).
The losses sustained from the continuous attacks, combined with the lack of protection from authorities, have made truck driving an increasingly difficult job in Lagos.
Taxed on the highway
For Francis Thomas, another truck driver, the consequences of these encounters with agberos have left him physically scarred.
On September 5, 2023, after his truck broke down around 2 am, he was approached by a group of agberos who demanded N10,000 to allow him to continue his journey.
When he explained that he didn’t have the money, they attacked him, leaving him with a swollen lip and a cut on his right hand.
He said, “After my truck broke down, out of nowhere, they came out and demanded I must settle them. They said I should call my manager immediately to settle them. I explained that it was too late and that they should wait till the day break before I would be able to get anyone to attend to them.
“We kept arguing until they beat me and insisted I must pay N10,000 for my vehicle that broke down. They didn’t offer to help. They just wanted me to pay them. Somehow, it got heated and they beat me, gave me a cut in my lip and my hands.”
Thomas said the rate at which informal tax collectors were springing up on the roads was worrisome, adding that every day, new sets of people wearing transport union uniforms emerge everywhere.
“We fear them; if your vehicle breaks down, they will harass and beat you. They don’t care what happens to you,” he said.
Exorbitant charges and deaths
According to information obtained from several truck drivers, numerous innocent individuals have lost their lives because of the violent attempts by the tax collectors to forcibly take control of moving trucks if the drivers refuse to pay the fees imposed on them.
In Lagos, the road taxes start at N2,000 per trip. This means that when a truck driver makes a round trip on any road in the state, they need to pay for both the inbound and outbound journey along the road they use.
A truck driver, identified simply as Ismail, detailing the dangers he and his colleagues face daily, said the hoodlums charge between “N50,000 tand N100,000 before they permit” anyone whose vehicle suffered a flat tyre on the road to fix it.
Ismail said, “Some of them are not alone; you’d see soldiers and policemen with them. When you meet the security personnel for help, they’ll tell you to give them their money. They work hand in hand.
“They have burst people’s heads and eyes. People have died. We have taken the beating as a normal thing. They come with a knife, ask for their money, and choke you if you refuse to obey them.
“When our vehicles are moving, they will hold the coupling hose and threaten that they will cut it in traffic and when they do, the vehicles cannot move again and then traffic will start building up.”
This year, operators in the haulage industry, including members of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, raised the alarm that annually, they lose about 45 drivers to the unchecked activities of these hoodlums masquerading as tax collectors.
The Executive Secretary of NARTO, Aloga Ogbogo, said, “We counted close to about 40 to 45 drivers annually. Some die instantly, while others succumb to their injuries later. The ones that died instantly were close to about 20 to 25. Then, some go to the hospital and subsequently die.”
Truck owners’ lament
Truck owners are not exempted from the financial consequences of this illegal taxation. Many of them lamented spending millions of naira monthly to comply with the demands of these criminal elements.
One truck owner, with a fleet of 40 trucks, who does not want his name mentioned for fear of victimisation, said he spends over N9m monthly on illegal taxes.
Last November, he said he compensated a customer with N23m due to an incident where a 20-foot container, en route to the client in the Agbara area of Lagos, fell off the truck.
This unfortunate event occurred when violent tax collectors demanded N5,000 from the driver and attempted to forcibly steer the vehicle, resulting in the mishap.
He said, “In terms of vehicle vandalisation, I have about seven of my trucks that when they come back, I have to start fixing them again because the driver had no money to give them when they destroyed the vehicle.
“It is frustrating,” he said bitterly. “Why will I have a business I run in this country where I pay all the required taxes to federal and state governments; I pay company income tax, education tax, VAT, PAYE and others. I pay all these taxes yet I am experiencing this rubbish?”
The business owner accused the state government of turning a blind eye to their pain and suffering, declaring that they knew those frustrating their businesses.
“I believe the government knows what to do or the people that do these things and they are shying away from it. The security personnel in the state ply the road every day, so you can’t tell me they don’t see these guys. They see them with sticks, knives, iron, and cutlasses even in some cases with guns.
“We have written several petitions to the state government, the police, and the Ministry of Transport. We have held several meetings yet it is like the more we try to address the issue, they become bolder. Some have left the business. I know two people, one had 13 trucks, and another had 15. They have sold everything and left the country,” he said.
Another truck fleet owner, who also wished to be anonymous for fear of victimisation, narrated that recently, two of his truck drivers escaped near-death experiences and sustained serious injuries from these tax collectors.
Describing the financial implication of the interference as massive, he noted that two-thirds of their profits go to paying the hoodlums.
Wading into the situation, another truck fleet owner, who also doesn’t want his name mentioned for fear of victimisation, said, “I have trained my drivers on how to deal with them. I have already expanded the cost of these area boys to them. It is already infused in their trip.”
Narrating a recent experience of one of his drivers, he said, “To go to Mile 2 from Apapa, they spend over N20,000 on just going. If it is going and coming, they spend N40,000 on illegal taxation.”“On this day, after my driver had paid for the illegal checkpoint mounted by them, it happened that he saw a new point and he didn’t have money for them.
“He told them that he didn’t know them and they insisted that since he had given them money at the previous checkpoint he must give them their own.
“My driver said but you guys are wearing the same uniform as the other ones and this spot didn’t use to be here, they were like, so you don’t want to give us our money. Suddenly they brought a stick and started hitting him. He was lucky that he came out alive.”
The truck owner also alleged that the most critical area in the whole of the state is the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, adding that the axis had been under the control of a monarch, who is to be an influential member of the RTEAN.
The truck owner said the monarch had over 60 checkpoints along the axis, adding, “It is his (monarch) way of empowering rascals.”
Impending strike action
The movement of goods from the Apapa and Tin Can wharves, the two major sea ports in Nigeria, is mainly by trucks. A 2018 report by the Lagos State Chamber of Commerce showed that over 5,000 trucks seek access to the two wharves daily.
Experts say about 80 per cent of the goods that come into Nigeria are moved inland by trucks thus any disruption of their services will impact the economy negatively.
The players in the industry noted that grounding business in protest of the terrible treatment of the workers in this sector is detrimental to the overall economic outlook of the country.
The president, Association of Maritime Truck Owners, Remi Ogungbemi stressed that the drivers are not members of the road transport association hence the illegal charges must stop.
“Which law says they should collect money from us? We are not their members, they should go and collect from their members which are danfo buses. They go about tormenting and pressuring people saying they have the law backing them, I don’t know the type of law that is.”
However, despite numerous petitions and meetings with stakeholders in the state, no significant action has been taken to address the extortion.
In response to the ongoing extortion, the Coalition of Maritime Truck Owners and Allied Services, in a communique on August 28, 2024, announced plans for a strike if the government failed to intervene.
The Vice-Chairman of the AMATO, Ridwan Bello, described the situation as a “scourge” affecting the transport sector in Lagos.
He noted that from Tin Can Island to Mile 2 alone, there were 38 illegal checkpoints where agberos demand money from drivers.
Bello said, “The agberos, under the cover of NURTW and RTEAN, became bold and started extorting truck owners. From Tin Can to Mile 2 alone, they have 38 checkpoints.
“In the whole of Lagos, we have over 170 illegal checkpoints and we pay at least N2,000 per checkpoint per way. This money goes up the chain to the higher authorities and day by day they keep multiplying.”
“If you look at the economic impact, it is a social decadence where people now move from doing honourable labour to extortion. We call them extortion bandits and terrorists because it is only in the forest that you see such impunity where bandits are holding people to ransom.
“From Ijora to Apapa, you’d see them together with the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, police, and Federal Road Safety Corps, mounting roadblocks.”
Despite the state setting up the Lagos State Truck and Cargo Committee to address the issue with the NURTW and RTEAN, Bello said no action had been taken.
Bello, in a statement last Sunday, noted that the inaction of the government appeared to encourage them, bringing about what he described as economic sabotage.
He added, “Reliable information indicates that the governor has heard about it. We wrote letters to the National Security Adviser and the Nigerian Shippers Council. They all reached out for a meeting, but our main agenda is simple and very clear: all the area boys in Tin-can, Apapa, Mile 2, the ones in Ikorodu, and area boys mainly on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway must be cleared.
“Those at Eleganza, just before the port, all of them, all the extension points, we don’t want to see any of them. Enough is enough. They’ve killed our drivers. They killed a gallant army officer when they were dragging, and steering with our drivers because of noncompliance with their illegality. I mean, it’s a matter of jurisprudence.”
However, to make their voices heard and appropriate action taken to ameliorate their condition, the association issued an ultimatum to the government to intervene, adding that if the government refused to act after the expiration of the 12-day ultimatum, members of the association said they had resolved to shut down the ports and deny drivers entry.
Following the ultimatum given by the asscoation, the Federal Government set up a panel to address the challenges faced by maritime truck owners and drivers in the state.
The Permanent Secretry in the Lagos State Ministry of Transport, Wale Musa, when contacted via text message, said the state was taking actions.
“We have asked any such incidence to be reported directly to the ministry through channels communicated to the truck drivers unions,” he said.
NURTW, RTEAN claim right
In response to the allegations, the Secretary of the Lagos State chapter of RTEAN, Adebayo Yussuf, insisted that the union was empowered under the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to collect money from the drivers.
He went on to deny allegations of harassment by its members but rather turned the blame on the truck drivers.
Yussuf said, “They are the ones killing our members. They should state clearly where they have seen our members injuring their drivers. We have many of them injuring our workers.
“Some of them, their legs amputated. They have destroyed so many lives. We will take the matter up, don’t worry. You will soon hear the result of the matter.”
Attempts to reach the President of the Lagos State chapter of the NURTW, Sego Mustapha, were unsuccessful as he did not pick up calls put across to him or respond to the text message sent to his mobile number as of the time of filing this report.
