RAYMOND OZOJI reports
Anambra citizens have continued to remonstrate against the terror and mayhem unleashed on motorists by touts who pose as government revenue agents at the Unizik temporary site junction in Awka extorting money from every commercial vehicle that picked passengers on the Enugu route of the federal highway at Unizik Junction.
Investigations by this journalist revealed that the trend has lingered for many years because the touts publicly boasted that government is aware that they are collecting money from commercial bus drivers. These touts inflated bus fares and most times collected fares from passengers and extracted their own percentage before handing over the remaining to the bus driver.
This journalist who has monitored the trend for years now have seen situations where the miscreants fought drivers over their own percentage; destroyed side mirrors of buses and most times inflicted severe injuries on bus drivers who dared to resist them.
A most recent case was on Friday 27th February this year when the hoodlums threatened a mob action on a GUO driver who picked passengers after dropping some people at the popular Unizik Junction Awka. It took the intervention of other staff of GUO transport company to rescue their colleague from the mayhem.
One therefore wonders if the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA), the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (OCHA-Brigade) and the Anambra State Special Anti-Touting Squad (Ndi-Aka Odo) responsible for maintaining a clean healthy environment have deliberately turned a blind eye to the menace of these public nuisance.
The pedestrian bridge at the Unizik Junction Awka has been completely taken over by beggars who intercepted your movement to ask for alms and others who have converted the bridge to another market thereby interrupting your right of way. The pedestrian bridge is now an eyesore due to excruciating smell from urines and other wastes on the bridge inimical to public health.
Some passersby who interacted with this journalist, suggested that the agencies of government aforementioned should be more proactive in their enforcements. They insisted that OCHA-Brigade and ACTDA should be more efficient in curbing all manner of environmental degradation in the state capital especially as it concerns eradicating the menace at the Unizik Junction pedestrian bridge and other strategic locations.
They equally admonished the Anti-tout squad to pay close attention to the pains revenue touts inflicted on commuters and bus drivers on the Enugu route of the federal highway at Unizik Junction Awka to ascertain if the touts were truly government revenue collectors and working for the government.
They insisted that the Anti-tout agency should not only focus on Onitsha but also extend their services to Unizik Junction Awka where alleged government revenue touts blatantly hike transport fares for travellers as well as molest any bus driver who failed to "settle" them after picking passengers.
Meanwhile the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (OCHA-Brigade) Chief Celestine Anere has on several fora maintained that the agency would leave no stone unturned in enforcing environmental laws this time.
Although an insider source from the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA) posited that ACTDA enforcement team is working tirelessly to ensure that the capital city remains orderly, safe and well-regulated; the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the agency Chief Ossy Onuko, had also on many occasions emphasized that ACTDA has embarked on routine enforcements on the Unizik Junction pedestrian bridge ensuring that beggars and roadside traders didn't subject the bridge to all manner of desecrations.
It will also be recalled that ACTDA and the Anambra State Road Traffic Management Agency (ARTMA) had collaborated to commence the compulsory use of the Unizik Junction pedestrian bridge and dissuade pedestrians from crossing the federal highway to avoid fatalities yet the collaboration has yielded little or no results because people randomly crossed the highway without recourse to the N20,000 fine placed on defaulters.
It is therefore a consensus opinion of members of the public that it is incumbent on ACTDA, OCHA-Brigade and the Anti-tout agency to live up to the mandate of their establishment by protecting the capital city from all forms of environmental disorders and degradation.
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