‘Agbero’ is a Yoruba term which means those people who solicit for passengers for commercial transport operators in Nigeria. They are found in almost every part of the road in Nigeria, especially in Lagos; a state that pride itself as ‘Centre of Excellence’

The Agbero guys are often employed by a group of Transport operatives called NURTW and are stationed at different parts of the roads en route the major cities. They impose levies such as: ‘Owo weekend’, ‘Owo loading’, ‘Owo olopa’, ‘Owo task force’, ‘Owo organizing’, ‘Owo traffic,’ ‘Owo environmental’, to mention but a few.

A typical Agbero is well trained in Gestapo method to extort commercial transport operators, armed with cane, sticks, whips, iron rods, to attack buses who do not stop to pay financial tributes within the range N50, N100, N200, and even N500 and also with a marker which he marks, to identify the buses whose drivers he had collected money from.

They usually place themselves under the influence of alcohol and drugs as a mark of earning some sense of belongings. More often than nothing, they brutalize commercial bus conductors; of which delay or refusal to pay the levies could lead to severe beating of the conductor and driver by a group of Agberos.

At times, they destroy vehicles and obstruct traffic at will, without any fear for government authorities and law enforcement agents.

Commuters who try to intervene will also be harassed, so most of the time they just watch without intervening. Even policemen and soldiers can’t do anything because they all work hand in hand.

The way these people go about collecting money from commercial transporters in every part of the country has become norms and yet nothing has been done to stop it.

The practice of obtaining money, through force, has become intense by these so-called monsters in Nigeria especially in Lagos state.

On a daily basis, commercial transporters and their passengers always go suffer bad experience in the hand of these monsters (Agbero).

The menace of Agbero is becoming unbearable in every part of the country; and in order to avoid this monsters, commercial operators are forced to seek retreat in security personnel (Police, Naval, Soldiers, Mopol).


An agbero official stopping a commercial bus even with a military officer inside the bus
They do lure the personnel to board their buses without collecting a dime from them. They believe the sight of the personnel in their vehicles would ordinarily reduce the level of harassment they would suffer from the Agberos.

In fact, most commercial bus operators complain a lot that, the extortion is too much and that sometimes they find it difficult to meet the consensus levy to pay the bus owners at the close of works.

There have been several protests by these transporters over these arbitrary collections which sometimes affect the projected income of these transporters; however the government has always turned deaf ears to their plights.

Reports have it that, the State government also gets some percentage from the illicit levy collected by the NURTW.

Not only that, it is an undeniable fact that some of the members of the NURTW are political tools often used by desperate politicians to pursue their cause.
This harassment and extortion is not just targeted at commercial bus operators alone, but also on Motorcycle and tricycle operators in the country.
Read full news:
http://www.smoshblog.com.ng/2018/05/29/who-will-stop-these-monsters-called-agbero-in-nigeria/

Agbero dey everywhere, now na national business e be