Tina Amanda
Rivers state ministry of transport has said the deadline given to commercial operators to paint their vehicles to state colours has elapsed.
The Commissioner of Transport, Michael West, stated this in an interview with theportcitynews correspondent Tina Amanda.
According to him, the ministry has deployed its compliance team on the roads to ensure that all commercial vehicle operators in the state abide by the rules and regulations guiding its operation.
“We have given them about two months and we noticed that they have disobeyed the instruction according to the law governing the state transport system. We had no option but to deploy the ministerial team to portharcourt roads to enforce compliance.
“We have impounded over 25 vehicles. It’s going to be a continuous process until all the commercial vehicle operators in the state yield to our regulation to paint to the state colour of blue-white-blue ”
The commissioner further advised commuters to always board vehicles painted in the state colour for their safety.
“Its a mark of identification. We are not only enforcing to paint their vehicles, we are doing enumeration where data of all commercial vehicles operator are taking in case you miss any of your items, just capture the unique code number of the vehicle, come to the ministry with that code and all the data of that driver will be shown through our system. We are advising the public to look out for commercial painted vehicles. It is safe and secured”
On his part, State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Comrade Ominiayebagha Duma has appealed to the state government for more time to comply with the directives of painting commercial vehicles to the state colour.
According to him, the poor economic situation in the country is a contributory factor to the non-compliance of some commercial vehicle operators.
He, however, opined that support in form of soft loans from the state government to the union will facilitate the process of compliance.
