TAXI FOCUS
up its efforts over summer. Goransson’s daily work routine now includes kneeling on doormats to collect the packaged swabs and liberally dosing his palms with hand sanitizer. Usually, people get their result within 24 hours of a visit from a “corona cabbie”, whom they may not even see as the pick-up aims to avoid close contact. Goransson is proud to be assisting Sweden’s pandemic fight, saying fast testing can help curb the virus, but he misses the human contact. “Normally this is a very social job,” he said wistfully. “I’ve been driving a taxi for about 20 years and the best part of it is meeting people.”
from Nigeria
7 MONTHS IN JAIL FOR NIGERIAN DRIVER WHO ASKED FOR FARE FROM POLICEMEN
A Nigerian taxi driver, Mayowa Ayodele, has told how he was illegally detained by police officers in Ogun state for seven months because he asked for the transport fare from police officers. According to the Premium Times, Mr Ayodele recently explained his ordeal to the Ogun State Judicial Panel of Inquiry investigating cases of police brutality at the state capital, Abeokuta. He explained that four police officers chartered his vehicle in March 2018, but refused to pay. When he questioned them for the illicit act, they allegedly kept him in custody and later charged him to court for pipeline vandalism. “I took them from the Mowe area to Magboro and back to Shagamu. After the ride, I requested my money, which was N4,500, but they refused to pay me. They said they were working for the government. After tough arguments with them, their superior ordered them to lock me up.” According to Mr Ayodele he was detained at the Motor Traffic Division of the Police in Shagamu for 16 days before being charged for pipeline vandalism at the Federal High Court in Oke Mosan, Abeokuta. He was then remanded at Oba prison in the state capital, Abeokuta, where he spent seven months while awaiting trial. Mr Ayodele’s counsel told the panel that his client was charged along with eight others for pipeline vandalism. Inter- estingly, they were all discharged and acquitted. Speaking on how he attempted to recover his seized car upon return from prison, Mr Ayodele said: “When I got back to collect my car, I met another boss there at the Motor Traffic Division. He said I had the effrontery to come ask for
JANUARY 2021
my car, and he ordered them to lock me up again. I spent another four days there before my lawyer came to bail me.” He claimed that the vehicle, which he purchased on install- ment for N1,050,000, was his only source of income and his wife had long left him due to his financial condition.
from Canada
TORONTO CABBIE FINDS 263-YEAR-OLD VIOLIN OUTSIDE SUBWAY STATION
Little did driver for Beck Taxis, Yahya Ahmed, know that when he bought a violin from a man outside Islington subway sta- tion in Toronto that he got the deal of the year. At the same time, he cracked the case of a missing 263-year-old violin. The Lorenzo Carcassi 1757, a rare and cherished instrument worth at least five figures, according to its owner Rich Royce, had gone missing after he accidentally left it on the subway the previous week. Police had released surveillance photos of a man walking out with the violin at Dufferin station, and said that it was now a theft investigation. Royce told the Star that he was over- joyed that it was found. “I felt like I had part of my life, my livelihood, returned back to me,” he said in an interview from Vancouver. He’s looking forward to retrieving the instrument once he returns to Toronto in January. “It was the ultimate Christmas gift.” Music lover Yahya Ahmed bought the violin as he collected instruments and wanted to learn. He saw the violin as he was parked up waiting for a fare. “I didn’t like the way the guy was dragging it and bashing it around,” he said. Ahmed said that the man sidled up to his taxi’s open window and he asked how much he wanted for it. The man finally accepted $100 and brought the case over. At home his son Adil thought it was fake as it was so light, but when Ahmed inspected it he found the serial number. His son grabbed the family laptop and entered it into the search engine. After reading the articles about the violin, Ahmed wanted to find the owner and talk to him. But after a few hours of try- ing, Ahmed called police, who came to pick it up right away. He was sad to see it go, Ahmed said. After learning its age and its provenance, he turned it over and over in his hands. “Just to see it and touch it,” he said, “this is a big gift.”
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