Mixed reactions have
continued to trail the recent disbandment of the Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority (TIMARIV) by the government.
Some motorists and residents of Port Harcourt who spoke with The Tide on the disbandment described the development as long over due and a right step while others said it would have been better to restructure the out fit for better services.
According to them, officers of TIMARIV, who were recruited and trained to ensure free-flow of traffic in the state, later deviated from their primary assignment by behaving like hoodlums, jumping into moving vehicles, towing cars indiscriminately, charging fees exorbitantly and so many other atrocities, while some said the fear of TIMARIV is the beginning of safe driving.
A transporter, Mr Sunday Binoye said the disbandment was a welcome development because TIMARIV officials had become demi-gods in the transport sector as they do not obey the law that set them up.
Binoye, who is also the state President, Rivers Transport and Investment Co-operation Union maintained that TIMARIV staff have out-lived their stay and should be sent packing for their wrong activities.
Comrade Ayotamuno Omoni, a commuter also said it was a good thing to disband TIMARIV, because the government had a good intention to set-up the outfit with their major function being to decongest the roads, but the officers set-up trap for drivers and apprehend  innocent ones with flimsy excuses to extort money from them, adding “They turned the good intention of government to money making machine, thereby derailing from their main duties.”
Omoni commended the government for the bold  step and noted that although it would create a vaccum, but  it the government is still interested in setting up similar organization, it should be with a clear-cut vision and direction, and they should be supervised, as well as to study similar  body in Lagos that is very effective.
Another transporter, Baba Jide Fashakin, was of the view that the disbandment would send most of the workers to the labour market when government is talking of creating employment opportunities for people as to curb the crime rate in the state.
Fashakin said it would have been proper that before they are sacked, notice of warning supposed to be issued to them and all their benefits paid till date so as to prepare another way for them to start life afresh, but with the development, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop and crime rate might increase, and appealed to government to rescind their decision or deploy them to the ministry, because the action seemed to be politically motivated.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, TIMARIV Chapter of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees  (AUPCTRE), Comrade Igenewari Ketuphal said it is not the best for government to disband the body because the people involved are Rivers people, but that the problem with TIMARIV was the management.
Ketuphal disclosed that for the past four years, the management had been impounding vehicles with nothing to show for it in the TIMARIV account and would want the government to look into it.
“We are citizens of Rivers State and we are appealing to the Governor, His  Excellency Nyesom Wike to find a place in his heart and recall us but restructure the management,” the Union boss said.