A commercial tricycle operator was on Sunday, March 20, beaten to coma by a group of touts for insisting on not paying cash to them as directed by the new governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo.

While delivering his inauguration speech last week, Governor Soludo directed that commercial vehicle operators, including tricycle and motorcycles, should no longer pay cash to touts operating in the name of revenue generation across the state. According to him, an acceptable system of revenue collection would be put in place to ensure that people were not unduly taxed. In most towns in the state, touts print illegal tickets which they use to collect money from drivers.

According to eyewitnesses, the touts who were three in number had accosted the Keke driver at the park close to the popular UNIZIK junction and demanded the normal N200 fee before commencing the daily business.  The driver however told them that he heard the new governor warning people not to pay cash to anybody henceforth, a statement that infuriated the touts.

The tricycle operator was said to have told them to go and look for something else to do with thier, as ‘being a tout’ had expired in Anambra State.

The touts insisted on collecting the money and told him they were not ready for jokes. They also told him that Soludo had just come, adding that he does not know how the system operates.

It was at this point that they pounced on him until he fell and slipped into a coma.