RSG To Impound Broken Down, Indiscriminately Parked Trucks …Gives Tanker Drivers Seven Days Deadline

The Rivers State Governments has said it would start impounding fuel tankers found broken down or indiscriminately parked in Port Harcourt and its environs.
The state Commissioner for Transport, Sam Soni Ejekwu, who declared the new order in Port Harcourt, yesterday, during an interactive session with the leadership of the tanker drivers, gave the truck owners seven days to free the roads of all trucks so affected.
He lamented that successive administration in Rivers had been unable to tackle the nuisance and hardship posed to other road users by tanker drivers who park indiscriminately on roads leading to major fuel depots in Port Harcourt.
Ejekwu, who said he drove through affected areas in Port Harcourt and environs before convening the meeting, identified Wait and Bush Road, Macobar Road, Industry Road, Njemanze Road, Eastern Bypass, Eleme Road axis of the East-West Road, among key roads being abused by truck drivers in the Rivers State capital city.
“One week from today, defaulters parking indiscriminately on the roads would have their tires deflated and made to pay.
“Owners of trucks or tankers broken down on busy roads have 24hours to fix and, or remove the same, else the government will tow them off the road with penalties on the defaulters”, Ejekwu added.
He tasked heavy-duty vehicle owners to maintain same regularly to avoid a breakdown on the roads while pledging, in the long run, to liaise with the Greater Port Harcourt Development Authority to allocate tanker park space to keep trucks from indiscriminate parking on major roads.
On their part, the tanker drivers who pledged to abide by the new government order, however, complained of a certain task force harassing and extorting monies from them on allegedly on behalf of the state Ministry of Commerce.
In his response, the Chairman, South-South chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Heady Duty Trucks Unit, Mohammed Uwarigiwa, told the commissioner, “These strange task force usually harass our men in the dead of the nights in major entry, exit routes in the state.
“They ambush our members on the road, demanding various permits, documents for which they make huge cash demands, up to N10,000 to N20,000. Those who refuse are sometimes brutally assaulted and their vehicles damaged”.