Keke Ajumose: We now buy one for N420,000—Okada riders •We gave each out for N340,000- Govt

IDOWU ADELUSI, in this
piece, takes a look at the
complaints by stakeholders
that the Keke Ajumose
scheme of Governor Isiaka
Abiola Ajimobi is being
hijacked by a cartel for
personal reasons.
IN ORDER to alleviate transport problems often
encountered by commuters in Ibadan, the Oyo State
capital, the state government under Governor Isiaka
Abiola Ajimobi introduced a three-wheeled pedal-
driven vehicle transport scheme nick-named Keke
Ajumose.
It was launched with fanfair as many stakeholders in
transport business, lawmakers, politicians and
government officials were in attendance.
The government arranged for the tricycles to be
assembled in Ibadan and to be sold to operators at
N400,000 each on hire purchase an after initial
deposit of N40,000.
To guide against default in payment for the tricycles,
interested buyers were told to produce a guarantor
who should be a government worker on grade level
08 and above. The government also arranged that
the tricycles would be distributed to the commercial
operators through their associations.
However, the scheme which was intended to alleviate
poverty in various homes and ease movement of
commuters, has turned the other way round. Aside
the tricycle being too costly, the commercial
operators alleged that some government officials,
politicians and lawmakers have bastardised the
scheme and have ended up tainting the intention of
the administration.
According to Sunday Tribune findings, the tricycles in
Ibadan are of two products: Honda which has four
stroke engines and Bajaj which has two stroke
engines. The petrol being used by the Bajaj product
must be mixed with engine oil as opposed to the
Honda tricycles which use direct fuel. The prices of
Bajaj and Honda were put at N360,000, and
N375,000 respectively. The Oyo State government
has been distributing Bajaj product.
Complaints by the commercial operators were that
the government has been selling the tricycles to
some of its officials, politicians, lawmakers and
friends of the administration who in turn sell the
tricycles to them at between N520,000 and
N550,000 each.
According to Mr Tunde Ajao, one of the operators at
Gate-Mokola unit, "the government sold Keke
Ajumose to our members at N400,000 per one on
hire purchase but we have to pay a deposit of
N40,000. We are to pay a balance of N360,000 either
daily or weekly.
"Some rich men who are legislators and government
officials went to purchase the tricycles and are now
selling the keke to our members who cannot afford
the N40,000 deposit at between N520,000 and
N550,000 per one. The Keke Ajumose are being
packed in the compounds of these people leaving
none for our members to buy directly from the
government."
Another operator, Mr Kamarudeen Tokunbo told
Sunday Tribune that he got his from a lawmaker at
N500,000 on hire purchase and has been paying
back at N10,000 weekly to the lawmaker.
He said, awa to je pe keke yi lafi n jeun, won ko gbe
fun wa. Awon olowo, awon osise ijoba, awon omo Ile
Igbimo Asofin ni won gbe fun, ti won wa n gbe fun wa
ni owo goboi. Literally translated, this means the
government has been selling the tricycles to
moneybags, government officials and legislators
instead of operators who earn their living from it.
Sunday Tribune gathered that quite a number of
these operators have paid the N40,000 deposit and
have been waiting since three to four months ago but
they have not been supplied. They were always told
to come back.
Some of the lawmakers have turned the scheme to
poverty alleviation project in their constituencies.
They even wrote their names on the body of the
tricycles.
But an operator asked, "what poverty are they
alleviating after they had purchased the tricycle from
government at N400,000 and sold it to us at
N520,000. Is that alleviating or aggravating
poverty?"
Depending on arrangement, the payment is N10,000
weekly or N2,000 daily to the owners, and if there is
default in payment for two or three weeks, the
tricycle would be taken from the defaulting operator
and given to another interested buyer who will
continue with the payment from where the last
operator stopped. Operators have not been finding it
easy to pay back because of the high price especially
those who did not get their tricycles from the
government, Sunday Tribune learnt.
According to the operators, they often used proceeds
from Monday to Friday to pay for the tricycles, while
Saturday and Sunday proceeds were meant to feed
their families, take care of fuelling and maintain the
tricycles. The operators said that when Governor
Ajimobi launched the scheme, it was meant to ease
transportation, provide job, reduce unemployement
and also reduce accidents often associated with
commercial motorcyles.
Mr Tajudeen Amuda, who operates at General Gas-
Akobo Oju Irin Unit, said the arrangement that their
members should produce government workers as
guarantors have been a stumbling block to them
because not many of the government workers were
willing to stand in for them. He said: "If government
can allow us to present landed property, it will be
better. The scheme is good and we thank the
governor for that, but he has allowed some self-
centered politicians to use the scheme to inflict pains
on us."
Mr Ademola Isola, a union executive member of the
Three-Wheeler Operators Association, appealed to
Governor Ajimobi to deal dirctly with members of his
union and the Almalgamated Commercial Motorcycle
Owners And Riders Association of Nigeria
(ACOMORAN), advising that the government should
deal with the unit chairmen by releasing the tricycles
to them for proper distribution to their members. He
said his union members were disciplined and that his
union has regulations binding on the members. Mr
Isola said members of his union have never defaulted
in payment for those tricycles received from the
government.
Reacting to the situation, the Special Adviser on
Media to the Governor, Dr Festus Adedayo said it was
either mischief or ignorance of the poverty initiative
scheme of the government of Oyo State tagged Keke
Ajumose that has led to most of the conclusions on
"this highly applauded scheme.
"The facts of the thousand tricycles, as against
claims by some people, are stated as follows:
"The cost of each of the Bajaj Indian brand tricycles
purchased by the Oyo State government and
distributed to end users in the state is N360,000 in
the open market. However, because the state
government procured it in large quantity, it got each
for and sold it at the cost of N340,000 and not at
N420,000 as alleged. The Chinese brand of the
tricycle, is sold between N300,000 and N320,000 in
the open market.
"But because most of the users of the tricycles didn't
have enough money to procure them, they went
through the Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle
Owners And Riders Association of Nigeria
(ACOMORAN) which secured fund from a finance
house and thus added its cost of finance of the fund
to the cost it gave it out to the users. When
ACOMORAN thus added the cost of registration of the
tricycle, number plate procurement and insurance, to
the earlier cost, these now made the amount it
collects from each user to be the sum of N380,000,
as against the N420,000 alleged in some quarters.
"Moreover, the state government's repayment term
is N7,000 per week and N28,000 a month and not
N20,000 a week as also being alleged.
"Government has never sold any of the tricycles to
any lawmaker but to ACOMORAN. It is indeed very
illogical to claim that government sells the tricycles
to moneybags because if one is a moneybag, he
shouldn't come to government for its purchase in the
first instance.
"More importantly, government has ordered for
another batch of the tricycles, having exhausted the
first tranch of 1000."