Foumban drivers block road, demanding end to extortion by government forces
As the evening approached on Saturday, May 28, 2022, inter-urban drivers plying the Foumban-Magna road, denouncing constant extortion by the mixed control team stationed along the road.
They used cars and sticks to block the road, while their passengers were stranded.
The driver’s union leaders said there has been “excessive extortion of money by the men in uniform”. They are compelled to give the mixed control team the sum of FCFA 6500 per vehicle that uses that road.
This to them is already too much as they had to shift the burden to passengers, by increasing the fares from FCFA 1000 to FCFA 1500.
The increment has not been well received by the passengers.
The drivers have been paying half of that amount when there used to be only one team. But when there are shifts, the new team will still ask them, the same driver, to settle them before they can be allowed to pass through.
It was finally resolved that the drivers shall pay only one time, no matter the number of teams that are stationed at the control post.
But the question is to whom does this money go?
