Keke: Operators Eye Iloabuchi/RSUST Route

Operators of tricycle
popularly called Keke NAPEP have started making some moves to begin operations on the Iloabuchi/RSUST Route in Diobu, Port Harcourt.
The Tide gathered that no fewer than five operators stationed their Keke at the Education Bus Stop urging those plying the route to join them to the back gate of the rivers State University of Science and Technology Nkpolu/Oroworukwo.
But the keke drivers were confronted by the taxi drivers and loaders who operate on the route.
One of the taxi drivers told The Tide that the last week attempt was the third time this year when keke NAPEP operators made such move saying but for the intervention of the loaders and taxi drivers, the KEKE boys would have since begun their operation there.
The driver who said his name was Augustine Tamuno remarked that the KEKE operators were very rude and disorderly.
“If they start now, the route will be so bastardised and disorganised”, he said.
But one of the Keke drivers who spoke to The Tide said their main target is the new Eagle Island road under construction by the state government.
“The Eagle Island Route is our target, and we just want to begin operation from Education Bus Stop but the taxi drivers don’t want to allow us,” he said; but maintained that nothing would stop them from achieving that target.”
“Don’t mind, just one day they will see keke drivers in their large numbers, by then there would be nothing the taxi operators  could do”, he noted.
He argued that “after all that route is not a major trunk road the government doesn’t want us to ply on”.
Not only the taxi drivers  appear to be against the keke operators as Mrs Edith Johnson, a commuter decried the attitude of the keke drivers. “they are too rough and if they give them chance to operate they will spoil the whole area. They don’t obey traffic laws and they park on the road while picking passengers”
She pleaded with the authorities to do everything possible to stop the keke boys from operating on the route.

Chris Oluoh