A Nigerian man based abroad has shared his experience in the hands of officers of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Abuja.
NAIJA NEWS NG reports that the Twitter user, Crypto Priest, said the NURTW officers arrested him and wanted to extort the sum of N75,000 from him.
“It was as if Nigeria was waiting to set a trap for me. I got arrested by NURTW in Abuja and my entire day went to shit because they wanted to extort me for the sum of N75k.
“If the car was mine, I would have paid for it because my time is far more valuable, but I don’t know what kind of mess I would put my friend into—busted my whole day.
“Loads of work I should have done are now delayed or cancelled. The intrinsic cost of my time wasted is in the thousands of US dollars, all because you have people making stupid laws and setting traps for citizens to extort them further in an already hard economic situation,” he said.
Pathetic.
In a follow-up tweet, he wrote: Update: I did not pay shishi.
Apparently, the dude who arrested me works with both AMAC and NURTW. When he stopped me with his goons, I insisted on him showing me his ID card and what authority he had. He brought out his ID card, covered the top and showed me his name.
The ID was laminated and his name written with pen. I was like, bro you need to show me the agency you work with so I can understand the kind of powers you are exercising.
When he saw that I was not ready to move, he finally showed me top and it was written clearly: NURTW. I actually started laughing. One woman who saw the commotion stopped in the middle of the road and tried to come to my rescue (God bless her soul).
I told her not to worry that I had everything under control. I faced the guy and told him we were going to sleep on the road today. He left his colleagues with me in the car and went to drag another guy who had AMAC ID card to show me.
Both of them stank of alcohol. Anyway, I followed them, but I was determined that one Naira will not drop from my pocket. The reason I was arrested was because the car document was registered with name/company, and not just name.
According to them, as long as the document contains a company name, you must pay for some documents. I consider it as extortion. But according to the legendary Ambrosia Ijebu, this is Nigeria.
Read the reactions from Nigerians below.
CoCo @HarryOD0
Does the NURTW not mean the Nigerian union of road transport workers? A union. So, when did a union start arresting road defaulters?
Rio grand @orio_meb
“National Union of Road Transport Workers” Local government staff extortion of motorists I know State govt extortion (LASTMA, etc) I know Federal govt extortion I know, (Police, road safety etc) WTF is NURTW doing on the list? MC Oluomo went to Abuja to open shop. Was Odumodu singing about him to attain through fare?
Tunde @othamm
Those amac and Nd nurtw, That what they do in Abuja, they are more powerful that government agency, like road safety, vio even police Na there boy