By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, early on Monday morning, arrested 19 commercial vehicles and 1 commercial motorcycle for causing traffic congestion at Banex road corridor in Abuja.
The vehicles that were arrested by the FCT Minister joint taskforce team, were illegally picking and dropping off passengers at the Banex road corridor, therefore obstructing free flow of traffic on the road.
The FCT Minister taskforce team which consists of the Nigerian Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, and Directorate of Road Traffic Services , FCT VIO, all worked together to get rid of illegal motor parks that were created by illegal taxi drivers at the popular Banex road, Wuse II, in ABUJA.
Deborah Osho, Head of Operations in FCT VIO, while fielding questions from journalists, decried the traffic congestion on the road that was caused by illegal commercial taxi drivers.
“This 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 was 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, Osho said.
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 in this area, will also address the issue of illegal commercial taxis, this will also clean the city and make Abuja safe, especially during this Yuletide period”.
Furthermore, Secretary of Command and Control, Peter Olumiji, said the exercise will help to get rid of one chance menace in Abuja.
He said, “This joint exercise that we commenced today has two faces, number 1 to clear illegal parks 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, Olujimi added.
