PDP group slams Akwa Ibom over new transport tax

A political and advocacy group within the Peoples Democratic Party, the PDP Advocates for Peace and Justice, has criticised the directive mandating biometric registration and a unified ticketing system for industrial tricycles and minibuses throughout Akwa Ibom State, describing it as insensitive.

The directive, issued by the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Transport in collaboration with the Akwa Ibom State Inner Income Service, is about to begin on Monday, March 16, 2026.

It’s aimed toward strengthening income administration and bettering documentation of business transport operators within the state.

Nevertheless, the PDP group, in a press release signed by its Chairman, Tom FredFish, and Secretary, Mr Saviour Uko, and launched in Uyo on Sunday, stated the train quantities to a disguised tax burden on already struggling residents.

The assertion reads, “The PDP Advocates for Peace and Justice (PAPA-J) strongly condemns the latest directive issued by the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Transport in collaboration with AKIRS, mandating the rapid biometric registration and unified ticketing system for industrial tricycles and minibuses throughout the state.

“Whereas the federal government might current this as an administrative or technological reform, it’s painfully clear that it’s one other disguised tax burden on the already struggling residents of Akwa Ibom State.

“At a time when employees and extraordinary residents are battling unprecedented financial hardship, it’s deeply insensitive for the administration of Umo Eno to introduce insurance policies that can in the end improve transportation prices and worsen dwelling circumstances.”

The group additional famous that civil servants are already spending a good portion of their salaries on transportation as a result of lack of a purposeful and inexpensive state transport system.

“As an alternative of addressing basic issues within the transport sector, the federal government has chosen the better path of taxing operators and not directly transferring the burden to the general public,” the assertion added.

PAPA-J emphasised that industrial tricycle operators, often known as keke riders, are among the many most economically weak residents within the state. Subjecting them to extra bureaucratic and monetary necessities by way of biometric registration and technology-driven ticketing successfully targets the poorest section of society.

The assertion continued, “Much more troubling is the failure of the administration to create enterprises able to producing employment or stimulating financial productiveness.

“With 1000’s of younger folks unemployed and struggling to outlive, it’s each morally and economically misguided to deal with squeezing extra money from struggling transport operators as a substitute of making alternatives for respectable livelihoods.”

The group additionally criticised the state authorities’s perceived alignment with the APC-led federal administration below President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, arguing that as a substitute of defending residents from financial shocks, the state authorities is compounding hardship by way of extra taxation whereas infrastructure deteriorates and billions are spent on political endorsement excursions.