Advances, harassment, weird encounters in ride-hailing cabs

Due to their convenience, ride-hailing cabs such as Bolt, Uber and Taxify are becoming increasingly popular among Nigerians who order them for commuting on a daily basis.

But despite having established their presence in about 33 Nigerian cities, many riders have increasingly complained of strange encounters they’ve had with some drivers of the ride-hailing taxis.

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Invasion of privacy

CNN host, Arit Okpo, described how an Uber driver had texted her after a ride, discovered her identity, and followed her on Instagram.

“I can’t even describe the sense of violation I felt, the blind panic. This man knew my address, phone number, and details of my identity – he could hurt me or my friends,” she tweeted.

Another person, a lawyer, Modupe Odele, explained that she never allows drivers drop her off in front of her hotel whenever she’s travelling. Rather, she asks to be dropped off at a nearby restaurant and pretends to enter until the driver leaves.

“Just heartbreaking what women have to do to feel safe,” she said in a tweet.

Harassment

Some of the drivers have also been reported to have harassed their riders, especially women.  In 2019, Temidayo Adetola, 24, ordered a Bolt ride to Ikorodu in Lagos State. Along the way, the driver stopped suddenly.

‘’He said he liked my body shape and I would be good in bed, that merely seeing my picture from the app, nobody would know I am this sexy,’’ she recounted in a tweet.

She left the car and sought alternative transportation.

Adetola is one of the many women who have felt harassed by the inappropriate comments and actions of some ride-hailing drivers.

Esther, an Abuja resident, also stated how she received unsolicited messages on Whatsapp from a Bolt driver.

“Unfortunately, we are still from a country that is so patriarchal and it is the same patriarchal belief that the drivers will have,” she said.

“They don’t really see women as people to be respected to start with. The companies can do as much training for their drivers but if they are not willing to learn, at this point, I don’t know what can be done,” she tweeted.

”He scarred me”

A Twitter user identified as Ada Ugo equally narrated her encounter with a Bolt driver who terribly scared her.

Ugo said she had confirmed the number plate and the car type when the driver arrived but forgot to check the driver’s identity.

Some minutes into the journey, she asked the driver why his identity was different from what was on the app.

“He said he used his brother’s account and asked why I was questioning him,” Ugo wrote.

Subsequently, Ugo shared the ride’s details with her sister and a friend, narrating her experience.

Ugo said the driver locked the door from his side, and then she began to panic. She texted her sister and friends as she could not answer their calls at that moment.

“All this time, he was driving so fast. Then, I told him if he wasn’t going to stop at the mall, he should end the ride. He then asked, ‘Why you dey share ride?’ You be pikin?’ I just wanted to faint cos how did he know?”

She was scared and surprised he knew she was sharing the ride, as he was not looking into her phone.

When they got to the traffic light in Maryland, she told him to end the trip or she would break the window. The driver started calling her all sorts of names, Ugo recalled.

“The traffic started building up so he stopped at Leventis bus stop and ended the trip,” she said.

“A driver robbed me”

A Twitter user simply identified as Kimboro once narrated her ordeal with a Bolt driver in Ikoyi, Lagos State.

“So, guys, I got robbed on Wednesday night at Ikoyi by my Bolt driver. He took my phone, my cards, my ID, all my money, and savings,” she tweeted.

Kimboro said she was under duress at the time of the incident. The driver, according to her, threatened her with a knife.

“All this while, he was circling round Ikoyi. He then stopped somewhere close to Obalende, gave me N1,000, saying he didn’t want his sister to be stranded and then practically pushed me out of the car and zoomed off,” she wrote.