Takeover of 21 vehicles: LagRide scheme partners send SOS to Sanwo-Olu for intervention

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

A representative of the partners of the Lagos State Government’s e-hailing transport initiative, LagRide Scheme, comrade Idris Shonuga, has called on Governor Bababjide Sanwo-Olu to intervene over the forceful takeover of about 21 LagRide vehicles from his possession by the management of Ibile Holding Company.

Addressing the media in Lagos, comrade Shonuga, who is also the National President, Professional E-Hailing Drivers and Private Owners Association, PEDPA, alleged that the new Managing Director of Ibile Holding Company, Mr Tobi Lawal, had earlier in the week, in a Gestapo manner, used policemen attached to the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad, RRS, to forcefully take over vehicles from investors (partners) in the Ajah area of Lagos, which were legally owned by the Lagos state government on a four-year repayment plan.

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Reacting to the reason behind the forceful takeover, Lawal said his mission as the MD is to correct some of the anomalies discovered with the LagRide operations, especially the involvement of partners, which according to him “is alien to the original plan of the government.”

According to him, “The original idea for the creation of the LagRide scheme was to empower unemployed young graduates expected to acquire the vehicles for commercial transportation purposes, but the plan was abrogated with the introduction of the partners and the connivance of some Ibile Holding staff by fleet management companies, even when the design of the scheme did not factor in the use of fleet management companies.

“Whatever agreement that has existed hitherto between Ibile Holding Company for the use of partners and investors is not binding as long as it is not signed by either the Managing Director or the Company Secretary, who are the authorising authorities.

“I have decided to retrieve those vehicles for handover to drivers.”

Narrating the encounter, Shonuga said he was invited to the Ibile office by the MD on a fateful day, based on a plan to discuss the operations of the business, but was fiercely threatened to return all the vehicles acquired through him by investors to hand them over to drivers who will assume ownership of the vehicles in which the investors had already invested over N1 million each.

Meanwhile, Shonuga, reacting to the assertions of the MD, said, “The creation of the LagRide came to correct some of the anomalies experienced by Uber and Bolt drivers who were heavily manipulated by the foreign companies operating them without subjection to our labour regulations, leading to so many agitations by the drivers who wanted better operating deals, prompting the listening government of Sanwo-Olu to crystalize the scheme.

“However, drivers who were supposed to be the original beneficiaries of the scheme could not come up with 5 per cent of the N1.8 million amounting to N90,000 demanded by Polaris Bank as equity payment for the credit facilities to aid drivers in accessing the ride, but at the end, only 50 drivers were able to afford it. So we had to bring in investors who are referred to as partners to make the payments for the acquisition of the vehicles and afterwards sub-let them to drivers, making the scheme eventually take off after six months of calls to drivers without responses.

“By the introduction of the investor arrangement, the LagRide scheme, therefore, involves three parties, including the drivers, the investors, and the app management company. This arrangement is obtainable as the operational standard since the take-off of the scheme, while the state government is benefiting from the regular tax payments from the daily operations of the vehicles.”

Adding that, “I’m therefore dismayed and shocked to hear the Managing Director asking me to order all the investors to return the vehicles to Ibile Holdings for him to re-allot them to drivers directly and for him to eliminate the investor group from the arrangement.

“I, however, made him see the impossibility of that action and the massive legal actions that it would throw up.

“Only a fraction of the drivers came up with the equity payment, even when it was reduced to N70,000 with an equity payment of 20 per cent, yet very many of them could not afford it, and for six months we could barely have 300 drivers who could come up with the equivalent N140,000 equity payment.

“It was the investors who came to the rescue, bringing in the necessary equity for the vehicles to be acquired from the government, with many steps taken by our association to fine-tune the process before the scheme took off and have been operating seamlessly since then until this looming policy summersault introduced by Mr. Lawal, which may portend the end of the scheme.”

Shonuga added, “All the partners have officially signed letters that engage them as partners who brought the needed equity contributions to acquire the vehicles before passing them over to drivers to ride and earn daily income.

“Each of the drivers earns four times more than their partners on average. Equally, before any of the drivers are engaged, they are interviewed by Ibile and certified, and the medical tests needed to certify the medical fitness of the drivers are done by the company.

“The use of fleet management has nothing to do with Ibile Holding Company, because its role is purely for the investors to manage their vehicles, ensuring their vehicles are well maintained, drivers are made to adhere to rules of engagement, and of course, ensuring that adequate returns on investment are guaranteed, which my company, IOS Fleet Management Company, offers to these partners.”

He stated that he has never, in any private discussion or any publication, criticised the government’s LagRide project; rather, he has been advocating support for the programme since it was designed to rescue e-hailing drivers, whom he represents, from the Shylock grip of other e-hailing companies.

Some of the partners spoken to at a conference held to deliberate on the development expressed their anger, describing the action of the new MD as an abuse of power and a ploy to forcefully take over the vehicles for reallocation to his cronies and political apologists. They also showed journalists the allocation documents of the units of vehicles handed over to each respective partner, duly signed by management members of the Ibile Holding Company.

The partners asked the new MD to immediately release the impounded vehicles from the premises of IOS, pending the next phase of fleets expected in the scheme for him to share as he pleases, stressing that they would await the state government’s response before embarking on the next line of action.

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