How I Started Transportation Business – G. U. Okeke

EMEKA ODOGWU

The Chairman, Board of Directors, G. U. Okeke Transport Services Company Limited, Chief Godwin Ubaka Okeke, has narrated how he ventured into transportation business immediately after the civil war in 1970.

Chief Okeke, who is also the Chairman, Board of Directors, ANAMMCO Limited, said that the moment it was announced that the war has ended, he and his brother trekked about twelve kilometres between his Adazi-Ani community to Nnewi, Anambra State just to confirm the report.

He noted that after the confirmation that the war has ended, he took his parents Peugeot 404 saloon car to Onitsha to check if the family businesses were still intact. Chief Okeke said that as he was about to return to Adazi Ani, many passengers going to Enugu were milling around his car.

“They were asking me if I was going to Enugu and it was obvious they are not sure if any other vehicles would come around. So I took eight passengers to Ogbete in Enugu and charged them one pound each. Interestingly, when I got to Enugu, immediately the ones I picked from Onitsha alighted, the ones going to Onitsha rushed to my car and I took them charging them the same amount” he recalled.

He said he would have made another trip to Enugu that night because many passengers were waiting, obviously stranded.

“In view of what happened that day, I arrived Onitsha from Adazi-Ani as early as 5am to resume conveying passengers from Onitsha and Enugu which signaled my foray into transportation business” Chief Okeke said.

He said he later bought a Volkswagen Combi bus to carry passengers from Onitsha to Lagos. “I also introduced two Mercedes 911 for haulage and interestingly that was how the journey started,” he concluded.