Commercial motorcyclists in Imo
State have dragged Governor Achike Udenwa and the Commissioner of Police to the
Federal High Court, Umuahia over government’s directive that commercial
motorbikes should not operate beyond 10 p.m. everyday. The operators, in their
suit filed last week, alleged that government infringed on their fundamental
human rights by dissolving their association and banning them from operating
after 10 p.m.
Lawyer to the Okada operators, Mr. Wisdom Dumeke, told
journalists in Umuahia that the government, through the Executive Assistant to
the Governor on Youth Mobilisation, Mr. Mike Iheanetu, dissolved their union
without telling them their offence or giving them the opportunity to defend
themselves.
Dumeke said government’s
action was illegal and unconstitutional.
The Okada operators, therefore, asked for an
injunction restraining the government, their officials, servants and agents
from forcing them to belong to the Amalgamated Union of Motorcycles (AMUMU)
created by the government. They argued that the fact that an allegation was
made against a member of an organisation does not make the organisation a
security risk.
They explained that the allegation that one of the
state’s prominent politicians, Chief Ogbonnaya Uche and former principal
secretary to the state government, Mr. Agwatu were murdered and the
murderer’s escape made easy with the assistance of Okada operators was false.
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