TT RideShare has temporarily stopped its service in the crime hotspots in East Port-of-Spain after one of their operators was murdered.
The stop notice was posted on the company’s Facebook page yesterday.
The company operates a private taxi service using a mobile app that uses GPS and an available driver nearby will accept the request and contact the passenger to verify their location and destination.
About a month ago, the company requested an additional safety check requesting passengers to upload a selfie and a copy of their identification card.
A week ago, one of their driver’s Segun Yusuf Ekundayo, of Third Danchoo, El Socorro, was murdered after he responded to a request on the app. Other drivers have been robbed in the crime hotspots, according to police.
TT RideShare did not indicate how many of its drivers were attacked or when or where the incidents took place.
According to a police report, at about 11 pm yesterday Ekundayo was at Gloster Lodge Road, in Gonzales when a gunman approached him and opened fire.
He was shot several times including one shot to the head.
Speaking at the police media briefing, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said he was unaware that TT RideShare had restricted its service in certain areas in East Port-of-Spain because of recent attacks on their drivers.
Griffith, however, said a level of calm has been observed in East Port-of-Spain in the last few weeks.
“And again because of the actions of the Inter-Agency Task Force, our intelligence unit, the CID, there is a lot of work we are doing in that area to ensure there is a degree of calm in that area and I think it has worked so far,” said Griffith.
Recalling the Downtown Owners and Merchant Association crime advisory to avoid areas in East Port-of-Spain due to crime, he asked the public to be very careful about the information they share.
The 14-month-old company was formed months after the international ride-sharing app Uber ceased its operations in this country days after one of its drivers 28-year-old Christopher Mohammed was found murdered in St James.
Several Uber drivers were also robbed. However, Uber stated its reason for shutting down its service was because of a “lack of a proper environment for innovation and technology to thrive in Trinidad and Tobago.”
TT RideShare will still be operating in other parts of the country.