Where Is the Promised ₦850 Keke Daily Levy Scrapping? Exposing Peter Mbah’s Fake Okpara Square Tax Relief and the Continuing Extortion on Enugu Streets

Ndi Enugu, shine your eyes and ask the hard questions!

​At Michael Okpara Square, surrounded by microphones and cameras, the grand announcement was made: Governor Peter Mbah was supposedly ending the suffocating Keke daily tax. The government’s media machinery went into overdrive, painting it as a historic populist victory. Keke riders clapped, crowds cheered, and spin-doctors declared the governor a savior.

​But weeks after that loud square pronouncement, where is the reality?

​Let us look at the ground truth. A factual check across major transport hubs—Holy Ghost, Gariki, Agbani Road, Emene, and Nsukka—tells a completely different story. The heartbreaking complaints from the transport workers remain unchanged:

​“We still pay ₦350 compulsory every morning before we load.”

​“If you no pay, taskforce go carry your Keke.”

​“Dem tell us for TV say dem don scrap am, but for road na still pay.”

​Is this not calculated manipulation through unrealistic and false hope? This is the classic signature of the current administration: promise in the public square, collect on the dusty road; give hope on radio, give pain in reality.

​With 2027 staring them in the face, they are playing cynical politics with the sweat of struggling Keke riders. They hand down empty promises today to harvest votes tomorrow, only to tighten the noose after the ballots are cast. A policy promised at Michael Okpara Square must be executed at Holy Ghost, Gariki, and Nsukka—not edited for Facebook reels and TikTok clips.

​If the government genuinely meant to scrap the ₦850 daily levy, it should be dead, buried, and gone completely. Not ₦350, not ₦200, not a single kobo! Let Keke riders breathe!

​The bitter truth is that they cannot scrap it, because their government structure and its web of enforcers depend heavily on daily road extortion to survive.

​This is precisely why progressive voices like Chief Geoffrey Uche Nnaji (Nwakaibie) maintain a resolute stand: “I will not tax poverty; I will create wealth.” Under Nwakaibie’s vision, daily ticket exploitation will be history. Keke riders will be genuinely empowered, parks organized properly, routes mapped out, and accessible support provided for vehicle ownership.

​Ndi Enugu, do not be fooled by oral fairy tales and staged theatricals. Ask your Keke rider friend or neighbor tomorrow morning: “Have they actually scrapped the levy?” You will hear the bitter, unvarnished truth.

​Shine your eyes. Do not let false hope buy your future!

​— The Eagle's Eye writes from Enugu.