PEDPA IS MARCHING FORWARD; DETRACTORS CANNOT DISTRACT US!
The Professional E-hailing Drivers and Private-owners Association of Nigeria (PEDPAN), through its National President, Comrade Idris Shonuga, released a press statement on LagRide refuting a statement where one Jossy Olawale claimed to speak on behalf of PEDPAN, and also alleging that the “1,000 vehicles” being provided for drivers in Lagride were being hijacked by “some cabals”, as published by the Guardian Newspaper today, Wednesday August 24th, 2022.
The statement read; Our attention has been drawn to a publication in the Guardian Newspaper today where one Jossy Olawale is claiming to speak on behalf of the The Professional E-hailing Drivers and Private-owners Association of Nigeria (PEDPAN), and alleging that the “1,000 vehicles” being provided for drivers in Lagride is being hijacked by “some cabals”.
First, Jossy Olawale is no more a member of PEDPAN and has never been part of the leadership of the union even when he was with us. So, how can he address himself as the “National Publicity Secretary” ? This is a fraud. We urge all media outlets to take note!
However, we will not fail to respond to the few issues raised by Jossy Olawale on the said publications as a union because we have a duty to educate the public, win more confidence from practitioners in the transport sector and also use the opportunity to exhibit our progress and collective advancements.
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PEDPAN is a bourgeoning union that covers all private and public Taxi drivers from the Yellow Cars to the Uber, Bolt, and LagRide. Our union is not just based in Lagos, but in twenty-one states including Abuja, Anambra, and Kano. The union is in its formative years, yet has risen quite high with sound ideological and administrative footings as it is led by veteran drivers that are still dedicated to the sector so actively.
PEDPAN has genuinely advanced the cause of the Taxi drivers and has gotten the confidence of the government especially Lagos state to invest in the Cab system. With E-hailing, we have set a manifesto of global standards to make sure the drivers are not subjugated and exploited through the new app system that somehow give the companies the chances to accumulate much gains while the worker only labours.
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This is why we were pro-active to passionately and in principles get into conversation Lagos Ministry of Transportation (MOT) on E-hailing regulative guidelines in the 2020 governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu make a pronouncement on new on E-hailing taxi scheme to reshape E-hailing industry as a cotting edge for other app companies to follow,with introduction of Brand New vehicles and road-worthy cars with almost 50% subsidies.
The LagRide initiatives has cars that are approximately worth #14m with VAT. Government in their own initiatives subsidize same by #6.5m each, and drivers subscribe at #7.5m with 10% reducing balance. What this means is that each Lagride is given out to a driver for about #8.7m to #9m on total, and drivers are to pay back in four years. This has never been done elsewhere since Nigeria’s automobile industry has been ruined. The country today is solely dependent on importation of vehicles while only a few companies like Innoson assembles locally. This has made cars to be optimally expensive. Yet, as a union, we believe that our drivers suffer and loose more working with second or third-hand cars.
While Uber and Bolt get 25% back from drivers, we were able to secure concessions on LagRide to get a return of 5.5% from same for the drivers for Comprehensive Insurance on Vehicle, driver and passengers, vehicle maintenance, and Driver’s Healthcare. This is the crux of our union’s agitations with other app companies system like Bolt and Uber. We reiterate that drivers should be granted at least 5 out of the 25% on ever ride for the aforementioned. We urge all service providers to understand that the drivers are the major pushes in the transport system and they so deserve to make real profits from their sweats. We also call on other service providers to work with PEDPAN and support drivers with subsidized brand new cars like LagRide.
On a final note, the blackmail by Jossy Olawale that Kalidola Logistics is involved in Lagride is false and a blatant efforts to pitch the union against the drivers. For the records, there are many Lease Patner-Companies like Kiladola that are members of PEDPAN. These Lease Patner-Companies help the drivers to easily get cars especially as the cost is too high for average Nigerians. We have Trustlink Comcast wireless Ltd and Dallah Global Investment Limited as few out of the numerous Lease Patner-Companies under PEDPA.
Our union has equity regulations that makes the relationship between drivers and Lease Patner-Companies a win-win situation. Our liberating policies is firmly rooted in the Nigerian and global Labour principles and standards.
PEDPAN hereby calls on drivers to join us more in drives as at least three hundred drivers have comfortably subscribed to LagRide, while thousands of our members in Uber, Bolt and some other Service providers are covered daily in our manifestos to ease the business of Taxi driving. We will continue to march forward as we have been doing, those hell bent on distractions are only singing old songs that are not worth dancing. Media outlets should be careful in relating with fifth columnists and anti-labour elements that see unionism as tickets of crass opportunism.
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