from Nigeria


WORLDWIDE TAXI FOCUS from Italy


GANG KILLED CABBIES FOR BODY PARTS IN NIGERIA


The Police Command in Rivers state has arrested some members of a criminal gang suspected to be murdering car-hire drivers and stealing their vehicles. SP Grace Iringe-Koko, the command’s spokesperson, linked the group to multiple cases of drivers who have gone missing. She revealed that the arrest of one gang member, Anthony Chima, exposed the sinister activities of the gang. She stated: “The discovery of this criminal enterprise targeting Uber drivers in the state followed the disappearance of one Oghenevwarhe Barry Akpobome, an Uber driver. “Upon investigating the disappearance, police operatives arrested Anthony Chima, 35. Under interrogation, Chima confessed to being recruited into a gang that specialised in luring taxi drivers into ambushes and stealing their vehicles,” she stated. Iringe-Koko said that Chima’s testimony showed the gang’s further gruesome actions of killing the drivers and harvesting their body parts for ritualistic purposes. “The suspect said that he was introduced into the gang by the group’s arms dealer, and another individual called ‘Reason.’ Investigation further revealed that ‘General Effizy,’ the gang’s leader, is a prominent figure in the Greenland cult and a seasoned kidnapper in the state,” she added. Chima confessed that he obtained the Uber drivers’ phone numbers and pretended to be a passenger. On January 10, Chima contacted Akpobome and directed the driver to pick him up at Reason’s residence. “Chima lured the Uber driver to a remote area in Aminigboko, where he met Reason and General Effizy along with four-armed gang members. The driver was taken to Effizy’s shrine, where he was tied up, gagged and gruesomely murdered. “Chima later led the police to the shrine and Effizy’s residence, where personnel recovered the victim’s skull and a fabricated Baretta pistol,” she said. A manhunt was launched to capture the fleeing gang members. Chima will face legal action. Rivers Commissioner of Police has advised Uber drivers to be cautious when transporting passengers, particularly to remote or potentially dangerous areas.


74


ROME FINALLY TO SOLVE ONE OF ITS BIGGEST TOURIST PROBLEMS


After an 18-year wait, Rome is finally going to solve a problem that regularly leaves tourists and locals stranded in the streets. The city is to get thousands of new taxis, the city’s mayor said on 21 June. Rome and other Italian cities have far fewer cabs than many European peers with the powerful taxi lobbies resisting efforts to increase numbers or fully embrace the arrival of ride-hailing competitors such as Uber. However Rome Mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, said that in July his office would issue tenders for 1,000 new taxi licences and 2,000 new Uber permits which would be active by December. “We’ve been paralysed by the bur- eaucracy, but things are finally moving,” Gualtieri said. Rome has just 7,800 taxis, with no new licences issued since 2006, and an additional 1,000 executive PH cars, which also serve as top-end Uber vehicles. By contrast, London has some 19,000 taxis plus 96,000 PHVs, according to 2020 data, while Paris has 18,500 taxis and at least 30,000 licences for PHVs. Social media sites are regularly flooded with horror stories of people left queuing for an hour or more at Rome’s main train station, while taxi apps at peak time struggle to find cabs. Taxi driver cooperatives say the real problem is that Rome’s public transport system is patchy, meaning they have to pick up the strain. They also say that outside the tourist high season there would not be enough work to go around if the city council issued more licences. Gualtieri said his office would press ahead with new licences despite taxi drivers’ protests. “We cannot wait any longer,” he said. Under Italian law, 80% of the proceeds from licence sales has to be given to existing taxi drivers as a form of compensation as the value of their own licences, which they can sell on, might be depressed by the arrival of new drivers. The new licences are expected to sell for around €70,000 (£60,000) each, officials predict. However, Eugenio Patane, head of mobility at Rome city hall, said having more cabs on the streets would not fix all the sector’s problems. “We need a compre- hensive overhaul at a national level of the laws on taxis. The current one was introduced in 1992, a different era, before there were smartphones or apps,” he said.


JULY 2024 PHTM


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