They are brutes, dangerous and daring. The mere sight of them immediately sends commercial bus drivers and their conductors cringing with fear. They are the lords of the road in the cities and in the hinterlands. They are the agberos, dangerous-looking touts who stand at bus stops and motor parks forcefully milking money from motorists.
Agbero, a sobriquet for street urchins, is synonymous with trouble and carnage. With terror, they unleash a regime of dread on Lagos roads as well as in other states.
On Friday last week, WE watched as Manager, as he popularly known at Cele Bus Stop, along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, pranced after a fast moving vehicle in Oshodi.
With one hand, he held firmly to the door, while he menacingly demanded ‘owo ero’ (passengers’ money) from the conductor.
“How many times I go pay for that one? I don pay you when I pass before”, the conductor replied.
The answer infuriated the dirty looking tout.
“You dey craze? You want make I wound you?”
The timely intervention of the driver and passengers, who prevailed on the conductor to comply with the demand, saved the day.
As the fuming street toughie jumped down from the vehicle, angry passengers hurled a load of invectives on him.
He isn’t alone in this brutish behaviour, as his likes litter the metropolis. Be it in the market where they collect illegal levies from traders to the motor parks where they are lords of the manor, they are a law to themselves.
The illegal act of forcefully extorting money from hapless commercial motorists by touts has been in practice for long, but it has, in the past couple of years, assumed a more dangerous dimension.
According to a 70-year-old man who spoke under the condition of anonymity, the ‘business’ of touting started in Lagos around the mid 70’s.
The old man who disclosed that he has lived in Lagos for more than 30 years informed that young boys, who fled to Lagos because of their parents’ inability to cater for their needs, metamorphosed into motor park touts to survive.
“The boys who didn’t have anywhere to go after coming to Lagos were forced to sleep in motor parks, uncompleted buildings and under the bridges. The good ones survived by working as house helps, truck pushers and hawkers, while the criminal minded ones took to armed robbery and extortion from commercial drivers. Initially, agberos did not start collecting money by force. Then, what they did was to assist drivers to fill their vehicles with passengers after which they would take any amount the driver gave them,” he explained.
We discovered that the leaders, who head units in bus stops across the metropolis where the touts work as foot soldiers, also have leaders in the motor parks who they are answerable to.
According to Morufu, a retired banker who now drives a Lagos State-operated taxi cab, members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Lagos are very organized and their activities are coordinated by national, state and local bodies.
“They hold zonal meetings every Wednesday across the state. I believe an arrangement should be made for these set of people to work with the local government since the government can’t remove them completely from the road.”
We were also reliably informed that in Oshodi area, there are 16 units that remit N700, 000 daily to the coffers of the leader in charge of the area. Also, in Iyana Ipaja, there are seven units and they collectively deliver close to N200, 000 daily. Some areas such as Shomolu and Alimosho regarded as money spinners remit close to a million naira daily.
How do they generate such large sums within 24 hours?
A motor park tout who said in each bus stop, 10 of them are sent to the road daily and are expected to return with N30, 000. The money, he explained, can be remitted by installments.
“We fit bring small for morning, afternoon and for night. Na him make us dey collect money three times from conductors and drivers”, he explained in spattering English.
But the money, in the words of a commercial bus operator, makes the touts live extravagant lifestyles and throw parties at will. According to Isola Amuda, a bus operator, an average agbero lives like a king.
“They have wives, girlfriends and drive big cars. They eat and drink as if they would die tomorrow with the money we labour for everyday. They are illiterates and drop-outs who live better than many university graduates. It is such an unfortunate situation”, he lamented.
On how a tout emerges a kingpin after running after vehicles and forcing motorists to part with money, Baba Ayo, a former commercial bus driver at Shomolu revealed that there are two major ways of becoming a baba alaye in any area. He informed that it is not a position for all-comers or rookies.
“First, you must be their member for long time. Anybody wey want be oga must dey give boys money and get juju, so dat dem go fear am. If you want start your own group, you go bring your own boys wey to dey deliver. The only thing wey you go dey do everyday na to carry women, smoke and eat. When boys bring money, as baba, you go dash dem some.”
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