Aba Residents Hail Ban On Illegal Motor Parks

Residents of Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, have
commended the state government for enforcing the ban on illegal motor parks in
the city to allow for free flow of traffic.

Some of the residents, who spoke to our correspondent in Aba
on Wednesday, said the decongestion of Asa Road, Aba, where most of the illegal
motor parks are located, is paying off as sanity is returning to the area.

Dr Charles Chinekezie, a civil servant, told our
correspondent that the ban on illegal motor parks was effectively helping
traffic decongestion in the city.

He said the effort had helped to decongest the city,
particularly in the early hours, when there was traffic build up on the major
roads.

Chinekezie urged government to sustain the effort with
constant check on the roads, ensure that offenders were penalised and traffic
decongestion taskforce monitored to keep to the directive.

Mr Cyprian Okeke, a trader, said the traffic hold-up, which
usually made movement in the city cumbersome, was reducing gradually.

“I am impressed, but the government should live up to
expectations to sustain it.’’

Our correspondent reports that it is no longer business as
usual for illegal motor park operators in Aba as the state Ministry of
Transport has ordered the seizure of commercial vehicles operating at
unapproved motor parks.

Chief Ukpai Agwu Ukpai, the Commissioner for Transport,
recently gave a two-week ultimatum to operators of illegal motor parks in the
commercial city to move into approved parks or face sanctions from government.

The ultimatum expired on August 1, and Ukpai personally
monitored the compliance level of the operators to the ultimatum with an
unannounced visit to the commercial city.

Consequently, the illegal park operators, who refused to
heed to the warning, were caught unawares as vehicles found loading were
impounded.

Ukpai warned during the visit to Aba that government would no
longer condone the activities of such illegal park operators, who he accused of
contributing to the defacing of the city.

To ensure that the order was carried out, the state
government set up a committee, which supervised the relocation of the transporters
to approved motor parks.

However, few months after that exercise, the transporters
came back to their old loading bays, thereby causing traffic jams in the area.