The Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority (TIMA-RIV) has been advised to break alliances with the police if it must succeed in achieving its primary objective of road decongestion.

The advice was given by Mr Johnson Umeh, a road transport employer in Port Harcourt during an interview with The Tide recently.

He warned that once TIMA-RIV starts to have alliance with the police in the daily operations of road decongestion at the various points, corruption will permeate the authority.

“Because the police at the respective check points are professional extortionists and if the management of TIMA-RIV allows its field marshalls to align themselves with the police, it means that the laudable initiative of the state to create the authority under the Rivers State Road Traffic law No 6 of 2009 would be a mere farce,” he noted.

He pointed out that the traffic situation in Port Harcourt had been unbearable before now and in the state government’s move to decongest the roads of Port Harcourt city, created this body to alleviate the sufferings of motorists posed by regular traffic hold ups in the city. He explained his confidence that TIMA-RIV will perform up to its desired expectation if only they can exert the autonomy granted them by the statute that established them without aligning with any other external body like the police.

Mr Umeh further urged TIMA-RIV to closely monitor its marshalls in the field for any sharp practices that would amount to corruption, stressing that a strategy should be mapped out on surveillance and control of the field officers’ activities and operations on the road.

The transporter lauded the creation of the authority, saying that since its inception, road traffic situation has improved tremendously.

He enjoined road users and motorists to support the state government’s people-oriented programme by giving TIMA-RIV the desired co-operation.