Commercial operations and vehicular traffic across Enugu metropolis were severely disrupted on Wednesday as hundreds of market traders and commercial transport operators staged widespread protests against mounting taxation and skyrocketing premium motor spirit (PMS) fuel prices.

The demonstration featured a coalition of tricycle (keke) riders, minibus drivers, and shopkeepers who gathered in force around key commercial arteries, including the Ogbete Main Market, Old Park, and Holy Ghost axis. Protesters mounted blockades on primary access routes leading to the central business district, expressing deep frustration over local levy structures that they argue threaten to collapse their businesses.

Transporters at the scene reported that daily operational levies collected by state authorities had escalated from ₦350 to ₦1,000 over the past 20 months. Paired with steep penalties for late daily payments and petrol selling at ₦1,450 per liter, operators stated that surviving under the present economic environment has become increasingly unsustainable.

The public demonstration unfolded despite recent public assurances from the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (EiRS). Revenue officials previously defended the administration’s consolidated digital ticketing framework, asserting that the single annual fee—₦36,000 for shop owners alongside fixed daily rates for transit workers—was instituted specifically to harmonize revenue collection, eradicate illegal extortion checkpoints, and eliminate multiple taxing by various state environmental agencies and local council authorities. State data noted that these technology-driven tax reforms successfully boosted informal sector revenue generation from under ₦100 million annually to over ₦7.4 billion.

As gridlock extended into adjacent commercial zones, security forces and government delegations were deployed to the Holy Ghost and Ogbete market corridors to open dialogue with protest leaders, de-escalate tensions, and clear blocked thoroughfares.