It was another day of rage and protest in Enugu today as Keke tricycle riders in the state came out to register their displeasure over the increasing hardship they go through in their daily life in the recent days.
The Keke tricycle riders block Abakiliki roads, demand end to fuel price hike, CBN monetary policies in recent time
The tricycle riders who came out in their hundreds blocked popular Otigba junction in the state with their Keke tricycles, leading to heavy gridlock along Abakiliki road.
According to the protesting Keke tricycle riders, they are tired of buying fuel at exorbitant price of between N450-N650 per litre.
They also complained of alleged harsh Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN recent monetary policy of withdrawal limit of N20,000 across the counter even in the face of scarcity of both new and old naira notes.
An eye witness who is a tricycle riders told Bellnewsonline.com that ” we are very angry. How can we buy fuel at N500 at this moment? We can’t go anywhere because of high cost of petrol. Look at it now, because of hike in petrol price, the price of other goods and services have gone up. We can’t continue like this. It is very unbearable.”
Explaining further, our source who is also a tricycle rider lamented that ” as we are going through this horrible experience, CBN came with their monetary policy of changing what now came to be known as old naira notes. We rushed to banks to deposit our old naira notes.
“Today we don’t see old naira notes and there is no new naira notes. If we go to bank to withdraw your money, they will give you N10,N20, N50 and N100 notes. There is no new naira.”
Lamenting further he said that ” we are suffering. We are dying. We are hungry. We can’t continue like this. We are angry.”
Our reporter gathered that few minutes into the protest, police from the state command invaded the area, asking the protesters to disperse, promising to take their demands to the state government.
The visibly angry youths, after some minutes of persuasion, yielded to the plea of the police and promised to continue the next day if their demands were not addressed.
In a related development, another protest was also said to be going on simultaneously with that of Keke tricycle riders in Enugu.
Some People’s Democratic Party PDP youths besieged the palatial house of a popular businessman and philanthropist, Chief Arthur Eze, demanding the fulfilment of his financial promise.
According the youths, the billionaire businessman promised to give them N20m during Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign visit to the state weeks ago, yet he has not fulfilled the promise.
Many of them were seen chanting profanity against the PDP candidates even as several protesting youths were captured on camera, setting ablaze PDP face caps with ATIKU inscribed on them when they discovered that Chief Arthur Eze was no where to be found.
No property was damaged during the protest, many of them were seen dejected and angry, raining abuses on the presidential candidates for deceiving them.