[PHOTOS] 100 Days of Joblessness, Abuja Taxi Driver Laments After Convoy of Imo Governor Damaged His Car

Abuja Taxi Driver Laments 100 Days of Joblessness After Convoy of Imo Governor Damaged His Car

 

Joshua Ezekiel, a driver working in Abuja, has been struggling to feed himself and attend to basic responsibilities since a driver of Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma damaged his car in August.

Ezekiel owns a Peugeot 406 car, with licence plate GWA 912 CG, and he was using it as a taxi in the capital city until August 13 when Obadiah Anthony Kigum, one of the governor’s drivers attached to the Imo Liaison Office in Abuja, bashed the car from behind at Ahmadu Bello Way, Glo Junction.

Kigum was driving a black Toyota Fortuner SUV with no number plate when he hit Ezekiel’s car at a turning area at Glo Junction. Together with Ugwu Austin, a chief driver at the liaison office, Kigum accepted responsibility for the damage and they assured Ezekiel that they would facilitate the vehicle’s repair.

“For over three months now, I have been jobless. The incident happened around 2:30 am. I was shuttling for passengers in the early morning of that day at Glo Junction and the driver suddenly hit my car at the back. Instantly, the three passengers I already had hopped into another vehicle and left,” Ezekiel told the press.

“Austin came down to me and assured me the car would be fixed. I intended to file a police report, but he said doing that could delay the repair process and I agreed. By 7 am, they towed my car to their mechanic.”

Worried about how the event could affect his income, Ezekiel pushed for a speedy repair of his vehicle and the drivers assured him that it would be completed in no time.

“I told the chief driver that the car is my office from where I make N15,000 on the average daily and he assured me that the repair would not take a long time,” Ezekiel told the press.

“On August 20, a director at the liaison office in Abuja told me that the issue would be resolved between two and three weeks. But when I called the office after the third week, there was no response.”

Realising that nothing had been done to fix the car almost a month following the accident, Ezekiel went to the Governor’s House in Maitama on September 9. The chief driver was displeased with his visit and immediately asked him to leave the premises.

When he returned to Maitama the following day, Ezekiel created a scene to draw the attention of one Mustapha, a man identified as an aide to Uzodinma.

“Mustapha called me into the compound and I explained my issue to him. He said he never knew the car had not been fixed. He told me to produce a repair estimate. I returned the next day and he promised he would apply some pressure for it to be repaired within one week,” Ezekiel said.

During one of his visits to the liaison office, the chief driver had claimed that an approval letter signed by the governor to fix the car had been misplaced but another one was going to be issued.

“On November 11, I called the chief driver to remind him of his promise. He said the liaison officer was yet to get a new letter approved by the governor and that I should wait until November 14,” he said.

Ezekiel had submitted an estimate of N600,000 to fix the car on his own. On November 13, Austin called him to say he might not get up to that amount, something he perceived to be an attempt to cheat him because it meant he would have to look for additional funds to get the car back on the road.

 

Despite all his efforts spending nothing less than N50,000 on transport visiting the liaison office and the governor’s house, his car remains grounded. The individuals involved have failed to make amends.

Ezekiel has been without any job for at least 99 days, borrowing money and relying on friends’ kindness to survive.

He told the press that he wants his car fixed as soon as possible and he wants compensation for being rendered jobless due to no fault of his. But it appears this does not matter to the people responsible for his current situation.

“In all of this, each time I raised the issue of compensation, the chief driver would always brush it off, claiming that the government did not have money to compensate me for these past months I have been made jobless,” Ezekiel explained.

“I’m tired and getting suicidal already. I have not been able to provide for my family for three months, my younger brother had to borrow money to complete his final year project in school because I could not provide for him. I want to get the justice I deserve by [the state government] fixing my car and compensating me for the weeks and months I have lost.”

When phoned the chief driver on Friday, he said he had a sense of responsibility in the matter but he had no authority to release the funds.

“I am just the chief driver. I have no authority to approve money for the repair. I have told him many times that we will fix the car, but my boss has not approved it. You can come to our office for us to talk,” he said.

FIJ asked him for the phone number of the appropriate person to speak on the matter, but he declined the request.

 

FIJ