Rivers
Rivers Assembly Set To Repeal TIMARIV Law
The Rivers State House of Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo is set to repeal the Rivers State Road Traffic Management Agency, TIMARIV, Law.
Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo, disclosed this in Port Harcourt while reacting to submission by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) at the just-concluded public hearing on the Rivers State Transport Authority Reform Bill in Port Harcourt.
Oko-Jumbo said repealing TIMARIV law has become necessary in order to avoid conflict with the Rivers State Transport Authority Reform Bill 2024.
He said though TIMARIV was disbanded, the law setting it up has not been repealed.
The Speaker said the present bill was meant to reposition the state transportation system for greater productivity and to engender competition among stakeholders.
He said the bill will among other things address insecurity, especially the one chance robbery incident currently in the state and also enable the National Union of Road Transport Workers to have adequate knowledge of its members.
Rt. Hon. Oko-Jumbo said the bill will also check incessant boat mishaps along the state’s waterways, while all incidences of wreckages occasioned by broken down vehicles and vessels along the waterways will be checked.
He said the bill will lead to the establishment of designated buss tops and streets, thereby bringing sanity to the state transportation system.
The Speaker commended the State Governor, Sir Siminalaye Fubara for his efforts in sanitizing the state transportation sector and urged the general public to support Government effort in this regard.
Also speaking, the Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Goodboy Sokari Goodboy, said the public hearing was to get the inputs of the public to the bill.
He said the bill, when passed into law, will bring sanity to the state transportation sector and promised to submit it to another department in the Assembly for a clean copy.
In their submissions, maritime workers union of Nigeria’s commercial sector called for a board that will oversee water transportation in the state.
They said the board should be made up of representatives of the Nigerian Navy, the Marine police, Maritime workers union and others.
They also called for the building of jetties at Ogbogoro, Choba, Marine base, Abuloma, Markoba, Bonny, Bille water side, and Abonnema Wharf.
John Bibor