Abia state government has warned transport companies operating in the state to stop using approved motor parks as garage where they maintain their vehicles.
Chairman of the Abia state Taskforce on Environment and Allied matters, Cat. Awa Udonsi Agwu (rtd) who issued this warning while on a visit to the Aba Main motor park lamented that most transporters have converted the motor parks in the state to a garage where they wash and maintain their vehicles.
“If you had visited the Aba motor park before now, you will discover that that it was turned to a garage where vehicles are maintained. Most of the vehicle has been parked there for over 10 years. This is why these transporters complain that there are no spaces for them to load and off load at the Aba motor park.
“We cannot allow them use the roadsides and surrounding filling stations as motor park because of its negative impact on the environment. They have always lamented that there is no spaces at the motor park but since we cleared the abandoned vehicles, they have seen that the park can accommodate up to 1000 vehicles. I’m happy that most of the operators are congratulating us for the job well done.
Capt. Awa accused the operators of Gallopin and Bicoz mass transit companies of instigating motor park workers to protest against government’s directives to relocate to motor parks in Aba.”
He further lamented that most motor parks in the state are highly underutilized and called on the transporters to patronize them instead of using illegal motor parks.
Capt. Awa appealed to transporters in the state to use approved government motor parks and warned that the government is determined to restore Aba to its original master plan.
Recall that motor park workers in Aba last Thursday embarked on a protest march over what they described as harassment by the Taskforce on Environment and Allied Matters.
The protesters who bore placard like “No more Taskforce”, “Capt. Awa must go”, “Don’t throw us in the labour market”, among others, barricaded the area spanning Milverton Avenue and Aba South LGA Secretariat which held up traffic for several hours until a combined team of policemen and soldiers stormed the area to ensure order.
Reacting to the allegation of sabotaging government’s efforts, proprietor of Bicoz Mass Transit, Ifeanyi Anaele who is popularly known as ‘Isienyi’, said while he supports the Taskforce’s efforts to restore sanity to the operation of transport business in the state, Aba main motor Park is too small to accommodate transport companies and called on the government to build a befitting park for transporters in Aba.
“The Aba motor park is too small to accommodate all the transport operators. Government should provide a befitting place for us to operate because I have more than 52 people in my employ who have dependents, you cannot just throw them out like that in the labour market? “This Aba main motor park was built more than 80 years ago and cannot take every transporter at this age. It is not enough for the union vehicles not to talk of private operators, in Aba South so government should reconsider its stand on the matter. How can you say all the major transport must enter this small park; Young Shall Grow motors, Ezenwata motors, Chisco motors, Okeke motors and others? It cannot work in this small motor park because Aba is a commercial town,” he concluded.
