The Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike‘s joint taskforce team on illegal motor parks on Monday, December 18, arrested 19 commercial vehicles and one commercial motorcycle at Banex Plaza in Abuja.
The development is to curb the challenges of one chance, kidnapping, traffic congestion, and getting rid of criminal elements.
The affected vehicles, our correspondent reports were illegally picking up and dropping off passengers at the road corridor, therefore obstructing the free flow of traffic.
The FCT minister taskforce team comprises of Nigerian Police Force, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), and the Directorate of Road Traffic Services, FCT VIO.
Deborah Osho, Head of Operations in FCT VIO, while answering questions from reporters decried the traffic congestion on the road caused by illegal commercial taxi drivers.
She said,
“This is the taskforce team that was constituted by FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike. What you are seeing now is clearing the road corridor on the popular Banex road, Wuse II that has been taken over by illegal commercial taxis.
“The illegal commercial taxis took over 50% of the road corridor picking and dropping passengers, meanwhile there is an approved park where they can pick and drop their passengers but they don’t use it, most of them prefer to use the road corridor, therefore, blocking the free flow of traffic on Banex road. About 19 vehicles were arrested along Banex road and one commercial motorcycle.”
On sustaining the exercise, she said;
“This exercise is continuous, once we enforce, we clear and then we pin down. And the pin-down is continuous.
“This will curb the challenges of one chance and will also address the issue of illegal commercial taxis, this will also clean the city and make Abuja safe, especially during this yuletide period.”
Also, the secretary of Command and Control, Peter Olumiji, said the exercise will help to get rid of one chance manace in Abuja.
He said,
“This joint exercise that we commenced today has two faces, number 1 to clear Illegal Park of criminal elements that run these one-chance taxis, and to also clear the parks of sales and trafficking of illegal drugs, they use the opportunity of illegal parks to transact their businesses. One chance is done at illegal parks and they use unpainted vehicles.”