FIVE officials of the Delta State Traffic Management Authority, DESTMA, were recently being detained at the Ughelli A division of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, over an alleged missing huge amount of money from a tricycle that was arrested and taken into custody in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.
The detained officials are, Oghenekioja Samuel, Anakpoha Louis Oghogho, Sibisaba Raymond, Udi Jeremiah and Erutobori Sunny Esharena respectively.
It was learned that a tricycle owned by a 44-year man, identified as Ayonuwe Sylvester was allegedly impounded by the officials at the Otovwodo market over an alleged wrong parking.
According to the Keke rider, “I picked a passenger on my way going to Warri and when I got to Otovwodo, after dropping the passenger to continue my journey, they accosted me.
“As I was about leaving, some DESTMA officials blocked my Keke and asked me to come down and upon inquiry, they told me that I parked wrongly at the center of the road.
“I begged them to forgive me if I parked wrongly but they insisted that I should met with their boss, just as I came down from my Keke to meet with their Oga, one of them entered and drove it to their office.
“When I got to their office, I met their boss and explained what transpired between us at Otovwodo and in response, the person I met in the office told me that, the Keke has been booked and there is nothing he can do and he gave me a zenith account number to pay the money into.
“He told me that my offence is N10,000 but because I accused them of stealing my N81,000 inside tricycle, I should pay N30,000 and I went to the bank to pay.”
Efforts to contact the Ughelli DESTMA Director, Mr Desmond Adu, was not successful as calls to his mobile line were not answered nor returned after two days terse message sent were not replied as at the time of this report.
